


Crossfire

by OverTheMoon322



Series: Stronger Together [2]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Brotherly Steve Harrington & Dustin Henderson, Coming Out, Developing Relationship, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Gay Will Byers, Good Parent Joyce Byers, Good Sibling Jonathan Byers, Homophobia, Humor, Jim "Chief" Hopper Adopts Eleven | Jane Hopper, M/M, Max's bad home life, POV Original Character, Post-Season/Series 02, Protective Mike Wheeler, Teenage Drama, Will Byers Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-15
Updated: 2019-05-29
Packaged: 2019-06-11 03:46:45
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Underage
Chapters: 22
Words: 94,764
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15306813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverTheMoon322/pseuds/OverTheMoon322
Summary: After the mansion incident, the party tries to make the most of the rest of their summer vacation as Will and Robert's newfound relationship continues to develop. When a sleepover at Mike's house goes south, the party's integrity is compromised, threatening to leave the party broken before high school begins.Sequel to "Stronger Together." While it's recommended to read that one first to better understand context, this works as a stand-alone too.





	1. The Split Campaign

“You’re running. You keep running far away from the house and the demogorgon. The night is quiet. Then up ahead, you see something... a place that looks strangely familiar…”

The night of July 23rd, 1985, the party was gathered around the table in Mike’s basement. All seven of us were there listening intently to Mike’s narration. We were in the midst of the new Dungeons and Dragons campaign Mike had been planning for the last two weeks. I had contributed some ideas for the story, and now I was getting to see them implemented. I couldn’t help but feel a little proud.

Dustin wiped his nose, while Lucas leaned forward, both concentrating on Mike’s words. Will was twirling his hair with his right index finger. He had just gotten a brand new haircut a couple of weeks ago right before our first date. Gone was his bowl cut. Now his hair was a bit shorter on the sides and back and longer on top, making his ears visible. His hair was parted on his right side, and his bangs brushed toward his left side. Everyone freaked when they saw his haircut the day after our date at the movie theater, but they all liked it and commended him for going for it. Of course by now, everyone was getting used to it. It still drove me nuts how much more attractive it made him though. I started thinking maybe I needed a haircut too. I ran my hand through my dark brown hair. It was getting a little long. It was a little longer than Will’s now but definitely not as long as his hair used to be. 

Max had her elbow on the table with her head resting on her hand, while El watched Mike intently, her fascination like a child listening to an epic bedtime story. She loved when Mike got into his dramatic narrator mode. It was a side of him she hadn’t ever seen until he started inviting her to our D & D sessions. El had only played like once or twice before. At first she would just observe, and Mike would go slower than normal, trying to explain what was happening to her. Being a fast learner, El picked up on the game quick enough. 

Although it was my turn, Will and I were playing footsies under the table, struggling to contain our giggles so as not to infuriate Mike, who of course took the game master role very seriously. Distractions that took away from the serious nature of the campaign were forbidden. 

“…As you get closer, you realize you’ve stumbled into a schoolyard.” 

“Really? A schoolyard?” Dustin stared at Mike incredulously. 

Ignoring him, Mike continued. “You explore the schoolyard, stepping through the neatly trimmed grass field. Wait…what’s that ahead?” Mike paused for dramatic effect.

“Oh god, it’s the shadow man, isn’t it?” Dustin groaned. 

“I thought El and I already dealt with him in our side quest,” Max said. 

“It’s a figure cloaked in shadow!” Mike announced, banging on the table. 

“Damn it! I knew it!” Dustin exclaimed. 

“Robert, what’s your action?”

I had barely been listening, as I was too distracted by Will’s socked foot rubbing up against mine. “Sorry what?” I looked up at Mike. 

Lucas rolled his eyes, obviously aware of the source of my distraction. 

“There’s a figure cloaked in shadow in front of you. Do you approach it or not?” Mike asked again with an annoyed tone. 

“Yes, I approach it,” I answered. 

“You approach the figure, unsure whether it’s a foe or something else. As you get closer, you recognize the figure’s face. It’s Will!” Mike revealed. Will perked up after hearing his name, his attention now fully on Mike. “You try to communicate, but he’s not responding.” 

“What happened to me?” Will asked, looking confused.

“You’re under a catatonic spell,” Mike replied. 

“I don’t understand. I left the house with Lucas and Dustin, and now I’m suddenly under a spell?” 

“That was your hidden consequence for leaving to get supplies.”

Will didn’t reply, but he had a puzzled look on his face as he waited for Mike to continue.

“Robert. What’s your action? Do you try to save Will now or move on and warn the others first?”

“I don’t know!” I yelped. Even though this part of the campaign stemmed from my ideas, I didn’t know what the consequences were for either action, nor did I even know there would be an option to save Will.

“Warn the others!” Lucas shouted.

“I agree with that!” Dustin also shouted. “Less risky.” 

“Save me!” Will cried out.

“Save him first. His cleric abilities might help Dustin and Lucas if they’re in trouble too,” Max suggested. El just watched as her friends argued, not taking a side. 

“Don’t be dumb. You’re a rogue. You can sneak around and get more information without getting caught. What if this is a trap?” Lucas argued. 

“Move on!” Dustin reiterated. 

“Save me, I believe in you,” Will pleaded, his beautiful hazel eyes widened in desperateness. 

Finding myself unable to say no to those eyes, I made my mind up. “Save Will.”

Dustin and Lucas groaned upon hearing my decision. “C’mon man,” Dustin said. 

“You have to roll a 14 or higher to save Will,” Mike instructed me. 

I picked up the two ten-sided dice from the table. I stared at my hands as I shook the dice around my sweaty palms. I threw them onto the table. One die read “5” while the other read “7.” 12. I had failed to save Will. Feeling dejected, I looked up at Will to apologize.

“Thanks for trying,” Will put his hand on my thigh under the table. I put my hand on top of his, rubbing small circles with my thumb on the back of his hand. 

“Great, now what?” Lucas questioned Mike. 

Mike frowned. “In the time you spent trying to save Will, Dustin and Lucas have also been put under catatonic spells.” 

“Are you kidding me?!” Lucas exclaimed with anger. 

“The shadow man got all three of you.”

“Damn it!” Dustin yelled. 

“This is bullshit! We didn’t even get to try to fight him off,” Lucas complained.

“At least you’re not trapped in a house with the demogorgon,” Mike snided back. 

Lucas stared up at the ceiling and sighed. There was no point in arguing with the game master. 

Mike turned back to me. “Having failed to save your fellow party members, you decide to do some reconnaissance on the shadow man laying low for now. Your turn is over.”

I frowned at my failure to save my friends. Even though it was just a game, I couldn’t help but feel guilty about the chain of events my actions had caused, especially since the campaign’s storyline hit very close to home. It was based off of a combination of the visions we had experienced in the ginormous abandoned mansion in the woods a couple of weeks ago. Max and El had successfully navigated through a version of the vision Max experienced while the rest of us were placed on a quest based on Mike’s vision. From what Mike had told me, they were set to intersect at some point as the mystery of the shadow man unfurled itself. I wondered if Mike had somehow incorporated my vision into the plot as well since he had me describe it in detail. One thing was for sure, the campaign was far from over. If I knew Mike, there’s no way he would design a campaign that doomed us to failure. 

“El, it's your turn again,” Mike grinned at his girlfriend. El smiled back at him and nodded. “You sense something…” Mike began to narrate dramatically. “Something terrible. Your friends are in danger. The paladin is stuck in a standoff with the demogorgon, unable to escape the house he hides in or else he faces certain peril. The cleric, bard, and ranger have fallen under catatonic spells while the rogue searches for information on how to save them. Who do you meet up with first? The paladin or the rogue?” 

“The paladin. I have to save the paladin first,” El answered confidently, eyes locked on her boyfriend. 

“Using the fast travel abilities of the zoomer, you and the zoomer arrive at the house in no time at all. Your stamina is at full strength while the zoomer’s is temporarily drained from the distance travelled. Do you wait for the zoomer to recharge her stamina or do you go straight in and attempt to rescue the paladin?” 

“I, uh…” El started to answer. 

The door to the basement burst open. Karen Wheeler appeared in the doorway at the top of the steps. 

“Mike! Time to wrap it up for the night. Girls, the chief’s out in the front waiting for you,” Karen called down to us, pointing at her wrist. 

“C’mon Mom! We’re about to reach the most exciting part! Just another half an hour, please?” Mike begged his mother. 

“Nuh-uh. It’s a quarter to midnight! You’re lucky I let you all stay up this late,” Mrs. Wheeler replied. “Besides, you know Jane has a curfew.”

Mike sighed. He knew Hopper never let El stay out after midnight. One of his ground rules. Tonight Max was sleeping over at the Hoppers’ cabin. Max loved those nights she could get away from her own house. Hopper was aware of Max’s abusive father, and while Max begged him not to look too deeply into her situation, he was happy to provide her a respite. He promised he would only look into it off the record if something major came up.

“Alright we’ll pick this up tomorrow?” Mike said in a half statement half question kind of way, his eyes darting around the room for confirmation from us. 

“Sounds good to me,” I replied. Everyone else nodded with um-hums. 

“Bye Mike,” El breathed, kissing him on the cheek in front of everyone, which made Mike blush. 

“Bye, El,” Mike said back, staring at her longingly as she made her way up the basement steps.

Max hugged Lucas. “See you guys tomorrow.” She looked over at the rest of us after she let go of Lucas. “Looks like the girls are gonna have to save the day once again.” Her statement was met with groans from Dustin, Lucas, Will and me. Mike was still too lovestruck to react. Max climbed the stairs and started to close the door behind her, but Mrs. Wheeler stopped it partway to peek her head in. 

“Lights out in fifteen minutes, boys” she instructed us before closing the door. 

“Ok!” Mike shouted back, having been shaken out of his reverie. 

This was the first sleepover the five of us had had in a long time. It was definitely the first since Will and I had gotten together. After everyone had started coupling up the sleepovers became less frequent. Since last fall, Will and I had been having our own sleepovers separate from the rest of the party as the couples spent more time together. We had always been best friends, but we became even closer from the increased amount of time we had spent together away from everyone else, until our experience with the mysterious mansion in the woods two and a half weeks ago finally pushed us to confess our feelings for each other that we had been holding onto forever. 

After moving the table out of the way, we started rolling out our sleeping bags on the basement floor. Even though the pillow fort was still standing, no one was allowed to sleep in it. It was Mike’s sacred spot that only El and him were allowed to be inside. Still, he was rolling his sleeping bag out with the rest of us. He never went inside the pillow fort while we were around. While I was looking around trying to find a good spot to lay mine out, hopefully next to Will’s I spotted Lucas giving me a dirty look. Our eyes met, which prompted him to speak. 

“Are you two planning on sleeping in the same room as us?” Lucas asked, eying both me and Will now. 

“Um, yeah,” I replied hesitantly. 

“I’m not sure I’m comfortable with that.” His words stung me. Will looked just as hurt if not more so. 

I stiffened. “What’s that supposed to mean?” I questioned him, folding my arms in a defensive manner. 

“Sleeping with you two in the room is like having a sleepover with girls,” Lucas said. “It’s awkward.” Lucas had been the only one not in the room when Will and I had told everyone we liked each other and were together. We later told Lucas after we defeated the shadow monster inside El’s head, and he had been genuinely shocked, unlike everyone else, who had guessed it but weren’t one hundred percent certain. Until now, he had shown no signs of disapproval of our relationship or sexualities. 

Dustin had finished rolling his sleeping bag out and was watching us silently. Mike stepped toward Lucas, his eyes lit up like a fire blazing a forest.

“What are you talking about? They’re still the same Robert and Will,” Mike defended us. "Nothing has changed!"

“That’s not true, and you know it,” Lucas retorted. 

“Is this some sort of sick payback for Robert not rescuing you in the campaign?”

“No, this isn’t about the stupid campaign! They’re gay, Mike. We can’t just ignore that and pretend everything is going to be fine and normal. 

I clenched my fists. Where was this coming from? He hadn’t had an issue with us before. 

“Tell him, Dustin,” Mike looked hopefully at our curly haired friend wearing his signature red and white baseball cap. Will and I followed Mike’s gaze. “Tell him nothing’s changed.” There was a desperateness in his voice, that made my heart break. Even I knew things were different, but I didn’t think Lucas would take it so negatively. 

Dustin frowned. “Lucas is right.” He stepped next to Lucas. The room was now divided into sides. Will and me a bit behind Mike standing opposite to Lucas and Dustin. 

“Look, I just think it’d be better for all of us if they sleep upstairs in your room,” Lucas advised. 

Mike’s eyebrows were lowered toward his eyes, his lips narrowed and thinned. I’m not sure I’d ever seen him this angry as he glared at Dustin and Lucas. Not saying anything more to them, Mike turned around to us, his expression softened a bit. “Go up to my room for now. I’ll sort this out, I promise.” 

Will and I nodded. We grabbed our sleeping bags and left the basement in silence, neither of us willing to set eyes on our other friends. After I closed the door to the basement, I heard Mike start to yell. Will was starting to make his way toward the main staircase to go up to the second floor but I yanked him back. 

“What are you doing?” Will whispered to me, not wanting to attract attention from Mike’s family or the boys downstairs.

“I want to listen,” I whispered back. I pressed my face against the door. Sighing, Will did the same. 

“What the hell, guys? What’s wrong with you?” Mike yelled. The room was rife with tension. 

“High school is coming up. We have to address the Will and Robert situation,” Lucas said.

“There is no situation. They’re just together.” 

“Get your head out of your ass, Mike. They’re gay. That makes them targets."

“We all get bullied anyway. What’s your point?” 

“The point is, some of us actually want to have social lives in high school,” Lucas replied. “I’m not saying we need to ditch them or break them up, but I think it’d be best for all of us if they could just pretend not to be together while we’re in school." 

“You know we were all relieved when they finally got together, but we have to be realistic here. This isn’t the most tolerant town,” Dustin added.

“If people find out about them, that makes us targets too. The last thing we need is more fodder for Troy and James and who knows who else,” Lucas continued.

“El’s going to be in school with us now. She can deal with anyone that picks on them or us,” Mike insisted. 

“You know El can’t use her powers in school or anywhere else except for life or death situations,” Dustin reminded him. “Besides, she can’t fight all our battles for us.” 

“Will and Robert went through hell and back to rescue you from your vision the shadow man trapped you in, and this is how you treat them? By kicking them out of the room and forcing them to pretend to be something they’re not?!” Mike snapped.

“If it were Max and I trying to sleep together in here, you’d feel the same way as us,” Lucas said. 

“That’s different! Max is a girl!” 

“It’s not different, Mike. It’s just as awkward for us. We can’t do certain things with them anymore. Sleepovers, changing in front of them…” 

Mike cut him off. “Are you kidding me? They’re still guys like us! I call bull on that logic!” 

“This is for the good of the party, Mike. Don’t take it so personally. I’m sure they already realize they’re going to have to hide their relationship at school anyway,” Dustin tried to reassure him.

“Even if they do, it’s not up to you! You don’t get to make that decision for them!” Mike yelled. 

Just then, I heard soft footsteps coming down from upstairs. It was Mrs. Wheeler again, who was now wearing a deep maroon colored robe and white terry cloth slippers. Will and I moved away from the doorway and hid off in a corner behind the stairs to avoid being spotted. The adrenaline rush from the anger I felt listening to my friends argue about our relationship allowed me to act quickly. Mrs. Wheeler opened the door to the basement.

“Michael! What is going on down there?” Mrs. Wheeler called out to her son. Will and I snuck behind her and made our way up the stairs while she was distracted. 

Realizing that Lucas and Dustin were beyond persuasion and wanting to avoid explaining their argument to his nosy mother, Mike snatched his sleeping bag and trudged up the steps. “Nothing,” he said behind gritted teeth as he pushed past his mother.

“Michael. Michael!” She attempted to get her son’s attention to no avail.

He stomped up the stairs and opened the door to his room, finding us laying our sleeping bags on the carpeted floor. He slammed the door behind him, the sound reverberating in my eardrums. 

“I can’t believe those mouthbreathers!” Mike bellowed, throwing his sleeping bag on the floor roughly.

“We overheard you guys,” Will admitted, looking sullen.

Mike’s expression softened. “I’m so sorry. You weren’t supposed to hear any of that.”

“Thanks for sticking up for us, Mike,” I said. 

“It’s not like it did any good,” Mike muttered. 

Will put his hand on Mike’s shoulder. “You tried. That’s what counts.” 

Mike looked defeated. “Let’s just get some sleep. I don’t want to think about it anymore.” He moved briskly away from Will to set up his sleeping bag. Mike’s roughness left Will looking dismayed. 

Will and I crawled into our sleeping bags. Mine was on the right, Will’s was in the middle, and Mike’s was on the left closest to the door. Mike shut off his bedroom light before crawling into his sleeping bag. The room was draped in darkness except for the soft moonlight gently pushing through his sheer curtains.

About a half hour or so of silence passed as I lay on my stomach trying to sleep, unsuccessfully. I turned to my left. Mike appeared to be asleep, but I couldn’t tell. 

“Mike?” I whispered. I got no response. Just the deep breaths of slumber.

“He’s asleep,” I heard Will whisper. I turned my neck to my right. He was sitting up in his sleeping bag. 

“I can’t sleep,” I admitted, also sitting up.

“Me neither.”

I scrunched up closer to him. “I hate it. I hate how they want us to just pretend to not be together after we’ve pretended to not like each other for forever.”

“I know it sucks. But what choice do we have?”

“We could just brave it all… all the bullies. We’re stronger together, remember? 

“We could, but it’s not fair to them to have to suffer because of us.”

“You think they’re right?”

“I don’t know what’s right anymore. Except how I feel about you. I know that’s right.”

I smiled at his dorky declaration of love.

“I’m mostly annoyed that they kicked us out of the room,” Will went on. “That’s what hurt.” 

“Um hmm,” I hummed in agreement. 

“It’s like they don’t see us as boys like them anymore.” 

I shrugged. I didn’t want to pretend to fully understand why Lucas and Dustin kicked us out of the basement and give Will the wrong idea.

Will’s tone became harsher. “Why are they so worried about us sleeping in the same room as them? Do they think we’re going to touch them or something?”

“Will…”

His voice grew louder. “Do they think we have AIDS and they’re going to catch it?!”

“Will!” I almost shouted. Thank god Mike was a deep sleeper.

“What?!” He glowered at me. After a couple of seconds, he realized how angry he had gotten and his face softened. Tears started forming around his eyes. “I’m sorry, Robert,” his voice cracked.

I hugged him. “They don’t think those things. I promise. If they did, they wouldn’t have stuck around after they found out.”

“Why are they treating us like this then?” 

I let him go to look at him. “They’re scared, Will. Not of us. But for us. And what it means for them. You heard them through the door.”

“Someday, you and I are going to get out of this town and go somewhere where people don’t care what we are,” Will declared, wiping his eyes. 

I grinned. “I’d go anywhere with you, William Byers.”

Will stared at me curiously. “You’ve never called me by my full name before. William.” 

“I suppose I haven’t,” I shrugged.

“How come no one calls you Rob? Or Robbie?” Will wondered.

“I don’t know. I guess I’ve just always been fine with plain old Robert.” 

“That’s it. I’m calling you Robbie now. It’ll be your pet name,” Will teased.

“Nooooo! Please don’t!” I whined. “Or I’ll have to call you Willy. Can’t call you Billy because…you know.”

“Ew nooo! That’s an awful name… fine. I won’t call you Robbie,” Will grumbled. Lying down, he snuggled up against me, the thick padded fabric of his sleeping bag brushing up against my body. “Goodnight, Bobby” he yawned.

I groaned as he smirked at me. The contagious nature of yawns led me to also yawn. “Goodnight, Byers.” 

______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile, downstairs in the basement, Lucas and Dustin crawled into their sleeping bags after shutting the lights. The large room was much sparser than it had just an hour ago.

“Were we too hard on them?” Dustin asked Lucas.

“Mike just overreacted. You know how defensive he gets with those two, especially Will,” Lucas answered.

“We didn’t have to kick Robert and Will out of the basement, though.”

“It’s like I tried to explain to Mike. Would you be cool sleeping in the same room with me and Max? Or Mike and El?”

Dustin shook his head, the mix of moonlight and streetlight coming from the small basement windows giving him just enough backlight to make out his outline.

“Couples and sleepovers don’t really mix together,” Lucas continued. “They’re still our friends, but it’s awkward to sleep or change in the same room with them.

“I guess you’re right.”

“Are you actually agreeing with me again? The Dustin Henderson is agreeing with me twice in one night?”

“Don’t cream your panties,” Dustin sassed.

Lucas laughed lightly before reverting to more serious thought. “I’m tired of being put in this box: the AV Club weirdos who don’t have many friends and play D & D every weekend. I want to be more than that. But that won’t ever happen if we’re friends with Hawkins High’s resident gay couple. Having faced the Upside Down stuff makes us pretty cool I guess, but no one’s allowed to know about that.” 

“I feel that. I’m happy for them. I really am. But they’re going to get their asses kicked or worse if everyone finds out. And no one will associate with anyone near them because they don’t wanna also get their asses kicked. It’s a dog eat dog world out there at Hawkins High. That’s what Steve tells me. Someone’s always the top dog, and someone’s always on bottom.”

“This fall is our chance to start over. We can branch out and make new friends. Then if or when the fallout comes for Will and Robert, we don’t have to be anywhere near it,” Lucas explained.

“You’re talking about ditching them and the party?” Dustin asked in an almost accusatory manner.

“I’m talking about a contingency. If we want the party to stay together, and I know I do, no one else can know about them being gay. We have to keep it as secret as the Upside Down stuff,” Lucas concluded.

“What about Mike?” 

“What about him?”

“I’ve never seen him this mad, especially not at us,” Dustin observed. “Well, other than when he found out Hopper had been housing El for a year.”

“Maybe we should just give him some space for now, I’m sure he knows we’re right but just doesn’t want to admit it.”

“So we’re putting the campaign on hold then?” Dustin guessed.

“We’re both frozen anyway. They could play without us if they wanted,” Lucas reasoned.

“Alright. I’m exhausted. We can talk more tomorrow, your place or mine. Doesn’t matter.”

“Sure.” 

“Night, Lucas.”

“Night, Dustin.”


	2. The Awkward Breakfast

Mike woke up. It was about 8 in the morning. Will and I were still asleep. He pushed his sleeping bag toward his feet and lifted his long pajama clad legs out. Mike stood up and made his way to the door lazily, his feet shuffling along the floor. He headed out of his room and to the bathroom to pee. Once he was finished, he washed his hands and left the bathroom, still trudging along at a snail’s pace. Hearing commotion downstairs, he stopped and leaned over the bannister at the top of the stairs to see what was happening.

Lucas and Dustin were fully dressed and heading toward the front door.

“Bye Mrs. Wheeler!” Lucas and Dustin called out as Lucas starting reaching for the front doorknob.

Mrs. Wheeler stepped toward them with a puzzled look on her face. “Leaving already? Don’t you want breakfast?”

“My mom is making her Sunday special omelette for two. Can’t miss it,” Dustin lied.

“Yeah, and my mom’s making some other special breakfast thing,” Lucas also lied, but way less convincingly. _Damn it, that wasn’t convincing at all_ , he thought to himself.

“Thanks for having us,” Dustin said with a smile.

“Well, alright then, I’m sure I’ll see you both soon,” Mrs. Wheeler said.

Dustin and Lucas hurried out of the house, not noticing Mike staring curiously at them from upstairs.

When the door closed, Mike padded along back into his bedroom.

Will and I had just woken up from the commotion downstairs, but neither of us were fully with it yet.

“They just left,” Mike said, closing the door.

“What?” I asked, not knowing what he was talking about.

“Dustin and Lucas. They just left, without even saying bye to us.”

“That’s weird,” Will said.

“Maybe they had to be somewhere?” I suggested.

“They lied to my mom, telling her some bullshit about breakfast specials at their places,” Mike told us. Will tilted his head in confusion. “Dustin did that thing he always does when he lies to adults where he smiles too much. Lucas was more obvious about it, but he was always a shitty liar.”

“So they’re avoiding us now?” Will asked Mike.

“I guess,” Mike answered. Will looked crestfallen.

“They probably felt bad about last night,” I said.

“Or not,” Mike responded with an unusual dose of pessimism.

“We should talk to the girls about this,” Will advised.

“Yeah I’m sure they’ll know what to do,” I agreed. “And Max could give us some insight into Lucas.”

“BOYS! YOU WANT BREAKFAST?” Mrs. Wheeler shouted up to us.

“YEAH, BE DOWN IN A BIT!” Mike shouted back.

The three of us sat at the breakfast table. We were treated to a large breakfast of pancakes with syrup, eggs and bacon. Nancy was sitting opposite me. Holly was across from Will, and Mrs. Wheeler was across from Mike. Mike, Will and I chowed down on our food, not saying a word.

“You guys are awfully quiet,” Nancy observed after staring at us for a minute or so.

“Just hungry,” Mike said with his mouth full of pancake.

Mrs. Wheeler put her coffee mug down on the table. “Mike, how many times do I have to tell you to not talk with your mouth full?” she chastised her son.

Nancy’s eyes were locked onto her brother, who was ignoring her. “You know I could have sworn there were more of you last night when I went to bed. Something happen?”

“No,” Mike lied, his eyes on his plate.

Nancy turned to me. “Robert, you wanna tell me?”

Hesitating, I turned to Mike who gave me a threatening look.

“They had their own breakfasts to head to,” Mrs. Wheeler interjected, saving me from having to lie to Nancy or incur Mike’s wrath.

“How convenient,” Nancy commented, obviously not believing that for one second.

Not wanting to cause any problems, Will observed the conversation in silence, playing with his half eaten scrambled eggs that he took too long to finish and had gotten cold.

“Can I have more pancakes?” Holly asked innocently.

“No, sweetie, you’ve had enough,” Mrs. Wheeler replied.

This was probably the most awkward breakfast at the Wheelers I’ve ever had, and I’ve had my share of breakfasts over the years. Usually the Wheeler’s breakfast table was lively and boisterous, with Mike and Nancy arguing about normal things like hogging the maple syrup or whose turn it was to talk. When the whole original party used stay over, it’d be even more rambunctious and loud. Mike’s dad would remind everyone to settle down when it got to be too much. This time was different. It was much quieter than normal because Mike, Will and I were too annoyed and concerned about the Dustin and Lucas situation to talk. Even though Mr. Wheeler didn’t talk much, his absence from the table today could be felt because of the lack of the sound of newspaper pages rustling. He was away on a business trip for the week, and I think Mrs. Wheeler may have secretly been relieved, as she appeared to be more relaxed than normal.

After we finished eating, we went upstairs to Mike’s room to gather our belongings. We determined my house as the spot for an emergency party meeting. Mike contacted El and Max to let them know to head over.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Lucas and Dustin arrived at the latter’s house. Tews, Dustin’s new cat, approached the pair and rubbed up against their legs. Dustin’s mom was at work, so the two were alone with the cat.

They went in Dustin’s bedroom and sat on his bed to talk. Tews followed them and jumped onto the bed before settling on a spot near a pillow and curling up.

“So tell me more about this contingency plan,” Dustin insisted.

“Well, I’ve decided to join the football team,” Lucas said.

Dustin burst out laughing. “You on the football team! You’re skinny as a rail! They’ll clobber you.”

Lucas was not amused. “You do weight training when you join. I’ll get in shape. Besides, I’ve already started doing more push-ups and crunches at home.” He lifted his right sleeve to show off his bicep.

“Wow, you can really see the one millimeter difference from last month,” Dustin mocked.

“Shut it. What do you know anyway?” Lucas grumbled as he pulled his sleeve back down. “How are your lifeguard lessons going? You finally graduate from floaties yet?” Dustin wanted to join the junior lifeguard program sponsored by the Hawkins Public Pool and had been taking private lessons in preparation for tryouts from a girl in Nancy’s grade named Heather, who was one of the Hawkins Public Pool lifeguards. Dustin had a huge crush on her. When he first approached her at the pool a couple of weeks ago, we thought he was just going to ask her out, but then he returned with news that she had agreed to give him lessons. At the time, none of us were quite sure whether he was taking these lessons because he was really interested in lifeguarding or just as an excuse to spend time with Heather.

“They’re going great. Thanks for asking. Heather and I have a real connection, I can sense it,” Dustin said confidently. “And junior lifeguard tryouts are next week."

“You’re actually serious about this junior lifeguard thing, huh?”

“Yeah, I am.”

“You should go out for water polo if you’re that into swimming,” Lucas suggested.

Dustin thought about it for a moment. “Huh, that’s not a bad idea.” There was a silence in Dustin’s bedroom for about thirty seconds or so. Lucas started petting Tews, who purred at the attention given to her. Finally Dustin broke the silence. “Should we apologize to Will and Robert? I can’t help but feel bad about how we treated them last night,” Dustin admitted.

Lucas remained adamant. “I’m not apologizing, but we can at least try to help them understand where we’re coming from.”

Dustin nodded, but he decided to himself that he would apologize to us anyway without Lucas.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Mike, El, Max, Will and I were gathered in my living room, making the space feel much more crowded than normal. My house wasn’t usually the gathering spot, but Mike’s house was too close to Lucas’s, and Will’s was out of the way from where most of us were already. Although I lived in a two story home, it wasn’t anything close to the size of Mike’s house, which needed space for five residents. In my house it was just my mom and me, so less square footage was required. Will, Max and I were on the couch, while El sat on Mike’s lap in the easy chair, her body sprawled out sideways, so her legs were hanging off the side of one of the chair’s arms. Worrying that she was uncomfortable I offered to let her squeeze in with Max, Will and me on the couch, but she told me she was fine and thanked me anyway.

“So, what’s going on that you had to be so secretive about on the Supercom?” Max asked. El was watching her boyfriend waiting intently for some big reveal.

“Why aren’t Dustin and Lucas here?” El asked.

“It’s about them,” Mike replied. He proceeded to explain the events of last night after the girls left up to when Lucas and Dustin left abruptly earlier this morning, his resentment of his friends’ behavior tinging his words.

“What the hell?” Max was dumfounded after Mike finished speaking.

“That’s terrible. Why would they do that?” El wondered. “They never had a problem with them before…”

“Before we got together?” I finished her sentence. “They don’t see us the same way anymore.”

“And why would they want Robert and Will to pretend to not be together?” El asked innocently, not understanding the concept of homophobia.

“A lot of people think it’s wrong for two boys to love each other the way you and Mike love each other,” Will explained.

“That doesn’t make any sense,” El said, totally confused over Will’s response. “I don’t see anything wrong with it.” Will flashed El a faint smile, appreciating that El’s naivety had allowed her to grow up not having any preconceived notions about homosexuality.

“A religious book written thousands of years ago says it’s not ok, and people just internalized that over many generations,” Max described, trying to explain the concept of the Bible to someone who grew up with zero exposure to it.

“Well that book sounds stupid,” El decided. We all laughed.

“So what are you two going to do when school starts? Keep it a secret or be open about it?” Max asked.

“I don’t want to keep it a secret, but I don’t really think we have a choice,” I lamented. Will nodded sullenly.

Mike looked disappointed. He wanted so desperately to shove it in Lucas’s and Dustin’s faces that Will and I were not going to hide our relationship and make them apologize for putting that burden on us in the first place. 

“I’ll talk to Lucas. See what’s going on,” Max said. “What they did is not cool.”

“Thanks Max,” I said.

“Be careful. Don’t tell him you heard everything from us or he’ll get all cagey,” Mike warned her.

“You think I don’t know how to talk to my own boyfriend?” Max accused him.

“Max, I don’t think he meant it like that,” Will said, trying to deescalate the situation.

She ignored Will, keeping her eyes locked on Mike. “Look, I get it. You’re pissed and want an apology. But don’t force me to start picking sides here. I don’t want to be caught up in whatever war you’re thinking about starting with them.”

“I’m not starting a war! I just want them to own up to their mistakes and apologize for treating Robert and Will like shit!” Mike seethed.

El put her hand on Mike’s shoulder. “It’s ok, Mike. She said she’d talk to him. I’m sure everything will work out.”

Mike calmed down. Max decided it was a good time to leave. She stood up. “I better go. I’ll fill you all in if Lucas doesn’t decide to come forward first,” Max said.

We said our goodbyes before she left my house. Once she was gone, I glanced over at Mike. His behavior was starting to concern me a bit. He was becoming very defensive of us, and while I was glad to have a friend willing to go to such lengths to defend me, he was taking this whole thing way more personally than he probably should have been. I was starting to believe Max was not totally off base about him potentially starting a war between him and Lucas and Dustin. Will and I were definitely hurt when they kicked us out of the basement, but their other point about trying to protect the party from further bullying made sense, even if they delivered it a bit harshly. I hoped time would mend this conflict between the three of them, but little did I know things would only get worse, and Will and I would be caught in the crossfire.


	3. The Ice Cream Date

That afternoon Max and Lucas went to get ice cream at the newly minted Scoops Ahoy in the Starcourt Mall. Steve worked there alongside his new friend Robin, whom he met on the job. While Steve wasn’t working at the time the couple went, Robin was there, and she scooped Lucas and Max’s ice cream with gusto. Lucas got his favorite mint chocolate chip in a waffle cone while Max got a scoop of strawberry ice cream on a sugar cone. Max knew she needed to talk to Lucas about his behavior last night and earlier this morning, but wasn’t sure how to approach it, so she put it off as long as she could.

Lucas always tried to keep tabs on how Max’s problematic home life was going, and while Max usually tried to keep those conversations short, today she allowed herself to talk more about it in order to delay having to address the sleepover situation. She talked about how her step-father Neil had been threatening her and her mother with violence last week when he got more drunk than usual. Billy had tried to talk him down but got punched in the gut. Typically Billy received most of the physical abuse, while most of the abuse she received was emotional. For example, he’d call her a slut and a dyke for dressing more androgynous than most girls. She tried to minimize any talk of Lucas while home because Neil was also racist and most certainly would not approve of her relationship with him. Billy at least did not tell his father about it, partly because somewhere deep down he cared about Max, but also probably to save himself from more abuse for fear that Neil might see him as failing to protect Max against “those type of people.”

That day Max had asked Lucas about his family as well, and while there wasn’t as much to talk about, she enjoyed the distraction from thinking about her own. Lucas would rant about his younger sister Erica and how annoying she was, which made Max laugh. Max thought Erica was a spunky kid and loved her sass. The two got along well when Max would go over to Lucas’s house for dinner or to study.

Lucas announced to Max that he was joining the football team, which surprised her, but she didn’t laugh like Dustin had. She supported it and was excited about the prospect of going to his games. Max told him she had decided to go out for cross country, which Lucas thought was cool and fit her zoomer class in D & D. He then told her about how he had suggested to Dustin he go out for water polo because of his recently discovered passion for swimming and desire to be a junior lifeguard.

“At this rate, the whole party will be doing different sports and no one will have time to go to anyone else’s games or meets!” Max mused before taking a lick of her ice cream cone.

“Do you think that could be good for the party in the long term? Everyone doing their own thing?” Lucas pondered.

“No one having time to hang out with each other? That doesn’t sound very healthy to me,” Max replied.

“I get worried. About what’s going to happen to our group in high school if everything just stays the way it is.”

“And what way is that?”

“All of us only hanging out with each other and not expanding our circle of friends. Will and Robert frolicking the halls holding hands and attracting bullies…”

“Excuse me did you just say, ‘frolicking’?” Max asked him incredulously.

Lucas’s face flushed. “That’s not important! The point is, they’re going to cause problems for all of us if they’re open about their relationship in public. I don’t want to see them or us get hurt over it.”

“Have you talked to them about it?” Max asked, feigning ignorance.

“Well, sort of. I tried to explain it to Mike last night, who I’m sure has talked to them since, but he didn’t take it very well.”

“I’m sure he didn’t,” Max replied, knowing full well how negatively he reacted.

“The sleepover was a bad idea. We should have all just left when you and El did,” Lucas said. “The idea of sleeping in the same room with Robert and Will is just too weird now. It’s like if we slept there together with everyone else in the room. Or Mike and El.”

“That wouldn’t be so weird,” Max disagreed. “We’d still be dressed and in separate sleeping bags.”

“You don’t think that’s awkward? Really?” Lucas was stunned.

“No, I would have totally stayed over with you guys if El hadn’t invited me to sleep over at her place.”

“How did that go anyway?”

“It was fun, as always. Let’s not get sidetracked here. You survived sleeping in the room with them, right? Not so bad? Nothing happened?”

Lucas stared at her for a moment. Max started to sweat a bit, worried that she was pushing too hard and Lucas was getting suspicious, but he shrugged it off. “Well, actually, Dustin and I suggested they sleep upstairs because it was too uncomfortable for us.”

“How did they take that?”

“Also not well,” Lucas admitted. “Mike sent them away and started laying it into us in private before Mike’s mom interrupted and prompted him to leave us down in the basement and join them upstairs.”

“Now that seems really awkward.”

“It was, but Mike was furious and after all of that, it was better we ended up in different rooms,” Lucas justified.

“To me, it kind of sounds like you ruined the sleepover for everyone.”

Lucas stiffened. “I didn’t ruin it. Mike did by yelling at Dustin and me. He could have stayed down in the basement with us, and Robert and Will could have had their privacy if he had just kept his cool and tried to understand where I was coming from.”

“Did it ever occur to you that maybe that night Robert and Will didn’t want privacy but wanted to have a sleepover with their best friends? And you took that away from them.”

“I guess I never thought about it that way…”

“You couldn’t tough out sleeping in the same room with them for one night? _One night_?” she repeated for emphasis.

“It made me uncomfortable!” Lucas protested.

“What did? That they’re a couple or that they’re gay?”

“Excuse me for being a little weirded out that two of my best friends are suddenly gay for each other. I’m not used to it. Most people at school would never get used to it.”

“Oh grow up, Lucas. You’re acting like they’re totally different people.”

“How are you so unconcerned about them?”

“I never said I wasn’t. But I’m not the one hurting their feelings and making them feel like they don’t belong.”

“Wait, did they tell you that?”

“Yeah, but even if they hadn’t, I could still draw that conclusion after what you just told me.”

“You knew what happened this whole time?! Mike put you up to this, didn’t he?” Lucas accused her. “He’s trying to turn you against me. Whose side are you on?”

“I’m not on any side! I don’t want any part in this fight you’re having with Mike. I just wanted to hear your version of what happened.”

“Well, you did. Are you satisfied?” He threw away the paper wrap from his cone in a nearby trash can.

“I guess I am,” Max sighed. “Just know that the longer you keep up this fight with Mike, the worse off things are going to get for everyone, especially Robert and Will.”

“I’m trying to protect the party!” Lucas insisted.

“By drawing out a fight with Mike over something so stupid? Yeah, you’re doing a great job protecting the party,” Max scoffed .

“Why do none of you seem to understand why it’s so important that no one knows about them dating?” Lucas said exasperatedly.

“They do understand, Lucas. They’re not idiots. Look, I know you mean well, but I really think you should try to mend things with Mike.”

“Or he should try to mend things with me. He’s the one overreacting.”

“Wow. You’re just as stubborn as he is. How have you two stayed friends this long anyway?”

Lucas shrugged.

A moment of silence passed between the two as they continuing walking around the mall. “Maybe you have a point,” Max conceded. “About everyone doing their own thing being good in the long term. Maybe you two could use some time apart, and you can reflect on whether your friendship with him is worth it or not.”

The skinny black teen nodded in agreement.

She smacked him hard on the back.

“Owww! What was that for?” Lucas yelped, rubbing the spot she hit him.

“For running off and not saying, ‘bye,’ to our friends,” Max replied.

Lucas just stared at her. Sometimes Max really confused him. She could be affable one moment and incredibly feisty the next.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Three days later, on the morning of Saturday, July 27th, Dustin biked over to Will’s house. Dustin’s house was relatively close by, and therefore the two would always bike home together from Mike’s house. Dustin’s house came up first, so Will would be left to bike the rest of the way without him. Of course this had become less common after the demogorgon incident, after which Joyce and Jonathan drove Will wherever he needed to go for about a year and a half, Joyce only really letting him go off alone on his bike again right before summer vacation started.

Dustin pedaled at a faster pace than he would normally. He had been holding onto his guilt over the events of the sleepover for longer than he had hoped but didn’t know when or how to apologize. Finally, he couldn’t take it anymore and just decided to go over to Will’s whether he was home or not. It was close enough that he wouldn’t be too inconvenienced if Will wasn’t home.

Will’s house came into view. Dustin walked his bike and leaned it up against the front porch. He briskly headed up to the front door and knocked, the fingers on his free hand tapping against the side of his thigh.

The door opened after a few moments. “Hey Dustin,” Jonathan greeted him with a small smile. He was blissfully unaware of the conflict in his younger brother’s friend group. Will hadn’t talked to him about it, not wanting to concern Jonathan with something that might blow over in a few days anyway.

“Is Will home?” Dustin asked.

“Yeah, he’s in his room. Come in.”

Dustin followed Jonathan inside. Jonathan knocked on Will’s door. “Will, you have a visitor,” he called out through the closed door.

“Come in,” Will called back.

Jonathan opened the door to his younger brother’s bedroom. Will was sitting at his desk, working on a drawing. He turned around to find Dustin smiling at him awkwardly.

“Oh, hey Dustin,” Will said cooly. Jonathan left them to it, closing the door behind him.

“Whatcha working on?” Dustin asked.

“N…nothing,” Will replied, quickly stuffing the drawing he was working on away between some other papers on his desk.

“Ok then,” Dustin said uncomfortably.

“Why are you here?” Will demanded, standing up in front of his desk.

“I came to, umm, apologize,” Dustin admitted. “It was wrong for us to kick you guys out of the basement.”

Will stared at him for a moment with unblinking eyes. “Why did you do it then? And don’t give me that bullshit about protecting the party.” Will almost never swore, so Dustin was taken aback by Will’s word choice and realized just how strongly Will felt about the whole ordeal.

Dustin sighed. “There was no good reason. Lucas was uncomfortable with the arrangement and I didn’t want to cause more issues. I figured it would just be easier for everyone if you two slept upstairs. But that doesn’t mean it was right.”

“No, it wasn’t. You really hurt us.”

“I’m sorry, Will. I really am.”

“If Lucas was so uncomfortable with us sleeping in the same room with him, why did he agree to the sleepover in the first place?”

“I guess he wasn’t thinking about it until it was actually happening. I hadn’t thought about it particularly either. Mike was trying so hard with this D & D sleepover to recreate old times: before the Upside Down stuff, before El and Max, and before you two got together. We got caught up in the swing of it all until that moment we were unrolling our sleeping bags. But things are different now. Like the campaigns…they have to be more complex because there’s more of us.”

“So what, is Lucas apologizing to Robert right now? You guys splitting duties?” Will accused.

“What? No. Lucas doesn’t know I’m here, and I don’t think he’s even planning on apologizing.”

“Oh." Will paused as he thought carefully about what he’d say next. He looked down at the floor, his foot tapping. Finally, he looked back up at Dustin, who looked quite nervous now. “Well, I accept your apology.” Will extended his hand out to his curly haired friend. Dustin sighed with relief, reaching his hand out to meet the thinner and slightly taller boy’s. They shook hands. One of the party rules was to shake hands after an apology.

Dustin smiled. “Thanks, buddy.”

“You’re not wrong about one thing,” Will started to say.

“What’s that?”

“Robert and I do need to hide our relationship in school.”


	4. The Confrontation

After Dustin left Will’s house, Will called me up to tell me about it and let me know Dustin’s apology extended to me. I was relieved knowing that Dustin had made the effort to apologize, but I was still worried about the ongoing conflict between Mike and Lucas. It was now about a week later from when the conflict started and they still hadn’t spoken to each other. Granted, the party hadn’t been fully united since the sleepover. Will and I had consistently hung out every day since, and while Mike and El joined us a couple of times, they were pretty busy themselves. Max had met up with Will and me a few days ago to report back on her conversation with Lucas, but she didn’t hear anything from him we hadn’t heard ourselves. There was no secret motivation, just a friend uncomfortable trying to come to terms with having two of his friends turn out gay and dating each other and concerned about what it would mean for the party during high school. I wished he would have been more easygoing about it all like everyone else had been, but I couldn’t really blame him for it. I knew there were people in Hawkins who would have way worse reactions. I was lucky to have a friend group as generally accepting as this one.

Finally the Monday after the sleepover, Mike had decided he had enough of waiting around for Lucas to make contact with the group again. Something had to give. He decided to head over to Lucas’s house to attempt to get an apology out of him. Mike biked the short trip over there in the early afternoon. He left his bike outside on the front lawn and knocked on Lucas’s door.

The door opened. Lucas glared at Mike, his thumbs in his pockets. “What do you want?”

“This has gone on long enough,” Mike said. “Can you please just apologize to Robert and Will already? You know the rule. You drew first blood.”

Dustin was standing a little behind Lucas watching the two in the doorway. He was over at Lucas’s to hang out, which had become a more frequent occurrence in the past week. “Let him in,” Dustin said. Lucas moved back to let Mike inside. They moved into the living room.

“I’m not apologizing for feeling uncomfortable and for being right about them needing to hide their relationship,” Lucas maintained. “If anyone needs to apologize, it’s you for attacking me.”

“Are you freaking kidding me? I can’t believe how selfish you’re being.”

“Lucas, would it kill you to just apologize to them already? I already did. To Will at least.”

Lucas spun around to face Dustin. “Why would you do that?”

“Because it’s the right thing to do,” Dustin said. “Suck it up and shake their hands already. Will and Robert already agreed to hide their relationship in school. There’s no need to drag this out anymore.” Dustin looked at Mike. “And Mike, you and Lucas need to shake hands too. You drew first blood in your fight with him.”

“I was defending them! I didn’t do anything wrong!” Mike insisted.

“If he can’t admit that he overreacted, I’m not shaking his hand or theirs,” Lucas said.

Dustin slapped Mike on the arm. “C’mon, Mike. You know the drill.”

“I’m not shaking his hand until he apologizes to them,” Mike maintained.

“Then forget about it,” Lucas said.

“Fine!” Mike shouted.

“Fine!” Lucas yelled back.

“No! Not fine!” Dustin raised his voice. “Seriously guys? This fight is going to break the whole party apart! It’s just like the campaign. We split up and it screwed everything up. Lucas, Will and I are disabled by catatonic spells. Mike’s alone in that house with the demogorgon, Robert’s lost and helpless trying to figure out how to rescue us, and the girls weren’t around to help until it was too late.”

“It was his idea to look for supplies and leave Robert and me in the house anyway,” Mike reminded Dustin.

“Yeah, and it was your decision to explore a sketchy mansion in the woods in real life that caused me to almost never wake up again. I could have been killed!” Lucas shot back.

“That was a majority vote. And we rescued you!”

“Because we stuck together,” Dustin interrupted them. “You see? When we’re united, we get shit done.”

Ignoring Dustin, Lucas continued arguing with Mike. “Why do you always get to lead the campaigns and tell everyone what to do?”

Mike wasn’t sure how to answer that. “Because…because…”

“Because… because…because what?” Lucas mocked him. Mike said nothing. “I’m sick of you having to always be right about everything even when you’re not!”

“I wasn’t right about Max!” he admitted. “She turned out to be an awesome addition to the party.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow, surprised Mike admitted he was wrong about something.

“But I was right about El being good for the party, I was right about Will being alive, I was right about El still being out there, and I’m right about Robert and Will deserving an apology from you, whether you’re uncomfortable with them or not!”

“Oh my god, you’re so full of it, Mike. I don’t know why I even bother anymore. You know what? I’ve had it. I’m _done_.” Lucas wiped his face.

“What do you mean, you’re done? Mike questioned him.

“I mean I’m out. I’m banishing myself from the party, so you can’t do it for me. Good luck keeping Robert and Will out of harm’s way.”

“Fine! You’d just bring everyone else down with your negative attitude anyway!” Mike snapped.

“Lucas! What are you doing?” Dustin protested. “You can’t just leave.”

“Actually, I can,” he retorted.

“But it’s your house,” Dustin said, trying to lighten the mood.

Lucas glared at him for making a stupid joke at a time like this. “Actually, he’s right. You two need to leave.”

“Gladly,” Mike huffed. He stormed out in a hurry and biked off, not waiting for Dustin, who lingered longer. He looked back at Lucas, dismayed.

“You can still take it back, Lucas. You don’t have to leave us behind to make new friends.”

“I can’t deal with him anymore. My decision is final. I’ll see you around, Dustin.

“See you around, Lucas.” Dustin sighed, closing the door behind him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I know this chapter is kind of short, but I felt like this scene needed to exist in its own separate chapter.


	5. The Aftermath

“HE WHAT!?” Will and I yelped. We were on the couch in Will’s living room with Mike in the easy chair next to us. Mike had headed over to Will’s house right after leaving Lucas’s.

“Yeah. Who needs him anyway, right?” the raven haired boy said.

“What’s going to happen to the party?” I asked.

“We still have everyone else,” Mike replied.

“But what about Max?” Will reminded him. “What’s she going to do? She’s his girlfriend and our friend.”

“God if I know,” Mike muttered.

“So what, we’re going to just sit here and let this happen? We have to talk to him!” I tried to encourage them.

“He made his choice,” Mike snapped.

“What’s Dustin’s take on all of this?” Will asked.

“He wasn’t happy about it, of course. I don’t know if they’re still friends or not. Lucas hates me, not him.”

“He said he hates you?” Will doubted.

“He may as well have.”

Will looked crestfallen. “Does he hate us too?”

“No. He was worried about you two.”

“Not enough to apologize,” I remarked.

“Enough about Lucas already. He’s not our friend anymore. None of it matters,” Mike said harshly.

The room fell silent. I hadn’t realized the fight between Mike and Lucas was serious enough for Lucas to ditch us entirely. A part of me felt like this was somehow my fault. If I hadn’t confessed my feelings for Will, we wouldn’t even be in this situation. Will and I would just be best friends instead of boyfriends, and the party would be united and eager for high school. Now we were fracturing and I was starting to dread the thought of school. We still had a little less than a month until it started up, and I knew I’d have to make the most of the time I had with Will before we both had to start hiding our relationship during school hours. The hugs, the hand-holding, the kisses, the staring longingly into each other’s eyes: all of that would have to stop once we set foot in Hawkins High.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Dustin parked his bike at the bike rack in front of the Starcourt Mall. Walking briskly, he headed inside, his destination clearly in mind. It was about a three minute walk to the food court, but he had memorized the route by now. In not much time at all, he arrived at Scoops Ahoy. There was a small line, so Dustin had to wait.

“Ahoy! What can I get for you today?” Steve asked the customer in front of Dustin. He was wearing a navy sailor uniform with a white hat with the word “Ahoy” embroidered on it. The first time Dustin saw Steve in his work uniform made him laugh uncontrollably, which of course didn’t amuse Steve. By now he was used to it, his mind on much more serious things.

Steve finished with the customer in front of Dustin, who proceeded to walk up to the counter. He wasn’t particularly in the mood for ice cream but he knew the drill if he wanted to talk to Steve while he was working.

“Oh hey Dustin,” Steve greeted him. “What’ll it be today?”

“Just plain vanilla in a cup,” Dustin said. “Listen, some serious shit just went down with the party, and I could really use some advice.”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa. Watch your language. There are kids around.” Steve reminded him, looking around the vicinity.

“Sorry,” Dustin apologized flatly.

“What happened?” Steve asked as he started scooping Dustin’s ice cream. “If it’s related to the you know what, you know this isn’t the right place.”

“Lucas abandoned the party.”

Steve blinked. “Why would he do that?”

“He and Mike had a huge argument, and Lucas decided he’d had enough of Mike’s b.s.”

“I don’t know. It sounds like he just wants some space for a while. I’m sure he’ll come around.” Steve handed Dustin his ice cream. “That’ll be $1.50.

Dustin pulled out his wallet. “They’ve fought before, like back when we first discovered El. But this time was so much worse. I think he really meant it when he said he’s banishing himself.” Dustin handed him a dollar bill and two quarters.

Steve gave him a funny look as he took the money. He never really understood the party metaphor all that much. To him, we were just a really close group of friends with some funny ground rules. “Sometimes people need to branch out and make new friends. They feel held back by the group they’ve been with forever. Hanging with Tommy and Carol made me kind of a dick. So I pushed them away, and I’m better for it.” Steve was ignoring his own language filter at this point, but he softened his voice so other people wouldn’t hear him.

Even though Dustin was done with his transaction, he lingered at the counter. “But he’s still my friend. I think.”

Steve leaned close to him. “Then let him know. You can still be friends with both of them without having to hang out all together. Now get out of here. You’re holding up the line.”

Dustin turned around to see a small line of annoyed customers forming behind him. “Thanks, Steve.”

“Anytime buddy. Have a nautical day.” Steve saluted him with the cheesy Scoops Ahoy line.

Dustin began to eat his vanilla ice cream as he walked off, now determined to find a way to keep his friendships with both Lucas and Mike alive.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Lucas lay on his bed, his head resting on his pillow and turned toward his _Ghostbusters_ poster on the wall. Other than _The Empire Strikes Back_ , it was his favorite film. While _Back to the Future_ was everyone’s new favorite movie, Lucas couldn’t find himself enjoying it as much as the rest of us did. He just saw too many holes in it. Time travel was a tricky subject. Lucas’s mind raced around the events earlier that day and the week before. Did he still have friends, or did his exit from the party mean no one would talk to him? He had directed his self-banishment more toward Mike. He wasn’t truly mad at Dustin, El, Will, or me. And although Max lying to him the other day about not knowing what happened at the sleepover had bugged him, he understood why she did it.

The doorbell rang. _Great, who is it now?_ he thought to himself. He looked out the window closest to the door. It was Max.

He opened the door. “Hey,” he greeted her.

“Hey,” Max said back.

“You coming to break up with me?” Lucas asked, fearing the worst.

Max gave him a funny look. “Why would I do that?”

“I’ve pushed everyone else away.”

“I’m not breaking up with you.”

“So you know?”

“Yeah. El told me on the phone. She was crying.”

“Really?” Lucas tilted his head.

“It was pretty ugly,” Max acknowledged. “I felt so awful… listening to her sob about the party starting to break apart… because I had no idea what to say that would make her feel better.”

Lucas sighed. He and El were never super close, but they still cared for one another, and El had been instrumental to rescuing Lucas from the shadow man.

“She’ll get over it, right?” Lucas hoped.

“Probably,” Max said with a joyless smile, trying to make him feel better.

“I still think I made the right decision, even if things are ugly right now.”

“If this is what you want, I’m not going to force you to be their friends, but just know I’m not going anywhere.”

Lucas smiled at her. Max was a fiercely loyal person, and he loved that about her. She smiled back, and they embraced.

“Also, they’re still my friends, and you’re going to have to accept that sometimes I’ll want to hang out with them,” Max declared, letting go from their hug.

“I won’t stop you. You’ll probably do a better job of looking out for Will and Robert than I ever could, and Mike’s too reckless,” Lucas accepted, putting his hands in the pockets of his navy blue shorts.

Just then, the doorbell rang again.

“You expecting someone else?” Max asked him.

Lucas looked confused. “No….” Too lazy to look out the window, he yelled through the door. “Who is it?”

“It’s me! Open up!” Dustin’s voice vibrated through the door.

Lucas opened the door and stared at the short curly haired boy in front of him.“What are you doing here?”

“We’re still friends right?” Dustin hoped. Lucas just gave him a funny look. “Because I still want us to be friends. Party or not.”

“Yeah, we’re still friends,” Lucas confirmed.

“Thank god,” Dustin breathed a sigh of relief. “Oh hey Max,” he greeted her, just noticing the redhead standing a bit behind Lucas.

“Hey Dustin,” Max greeted him back with a little wave and a smirk. Lucas motioned Dustin to come inside. Dustin walked in, the three of them settling in the living room.

“The three of us. We could be like a new party. Party 2.0,” Dustin suggested after a moment of silence.

“No,” Lucas and Max said simultaneously. “No more parties,” Lucas reaffirmed.

“Fine,” Dustin grumbled.

“Isn’t your lifeguard tryout thing tomorrow?” Max asked him.

“Yeah.”

“Are you ready?”

“Heather says I am.”

“What do you think?” Lucas questioned him.

“I’m as ready as I’ll ever be,” Dustin mumbled.

“It kind of sounds like you’re nervous,” Max observed.

“Maybe a little. I’ve never done something like this before,” Dustin admitted.

“You got this dude. You’ve been prepping hard,” Lucas encouraged.

“I don’t think you have anything to worry about,” Max assured him with a grin.

“Thanks guys.”

The couple nodded. The three of them hung out for the rest of the day, trading off on Lucas’s Atari. Lucas didn’t feel like leaving his house that day, and Max didn’t want him to feel alone. Dustin was fine staying inside after schlepping to the mall and back. It was a hot day out anyway. Max found Lucas’s dad’s record player and persuaded Lucas to let her play some music on it. His dad’s collection was mostly stuff from the 60s and early 70s. She put on _Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band_ by The Beatles, and they listened to that for a while. A little before dinnertime Dustin went home, so he could get enough sleep for his tryouts the following day, but Max stayed over later. She wasn’t allowed to sleep at his house because his parents had a no girls sleeping over policy, but she did stay for dinner and into the late evening. Eventually she went home too, her step-father probably not pleased she stayed out later than expected.


	6. The Best Day Ever

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I couldn't help myself and added a fun segment near the end of the chapter to add a little spice to the Hawkins Pool scene in honor of the new Stranger Things 3 clip that came out featuring lifeguard Billy and Mrs. Wheeler!

Another week passed by. I hadn’t seen or heard from Lucas or Dustin at all. Nor had Will. Dustin had gone over to Mike's once to hang out, but that was it. El and Max still talked on the phone and hung out a couple of times. Max, Will and I hung out on the first day of August. We walked around Starcourt Mall, specifically to go to Sam Goody. I was starting to get Max to expand her taste in music. I ended up buying a single from Soft Cell that I planned to listen to with Will.

Dustin got into the junior lifeguard program easy peasy. Heather’s lessons paid off for him. Although I hadn’t personally seen Dustin to congratulate him, Max told me she would let him know for me next time she saw him.

The day was now August 5th. I had invited Will to sleep over at my house tonight, and we were set to hang out all day. It being just the two of us had become a pretty normal occurrence over the past two weeks. Mike and El had been spending more time alone together, although the four of us had met up a few times. I wondered if Mike thought it would be easier to avoid thinking about the missing party members if he just hung out with El. While I enjoyed having quality time with just Will, certain places we’d go or subjects of conversation would trigger thoughts of them, so for me it wasn’t really any easier.

Will knocked on my front door around 10am or so. I opened the door. He immediately pounced on me, jumping into my arms and kissing me on the lips. I melted into it, kissing him back. Today Will was wearing a pair of orange shorts that cut off around the middle of his thighs and a heather gray t-shirt with red and blue adjacent stripes. He was wearing his usual navy Adidas sneakers and high white socks with blue stripes at the top. His hair was getting longer since he got it cut four weeks ago. The sides and back weren’t so short anymore, but his bangs reached just below his eyebrows now. They were brushed toward his left eye.

Separating from me, he finally spoke. “You can’t just open the door for anyone. You might get attacked.” He gave me a shit-eating grin.

“Oh shut it, Byers,” I laughed.

“Today’s going to be the best day ever. I can feel it!” Will exclaimed, beaming and full of optimism, which was hard to come by in our group these days.

“It’s going to be a blast! I’m super excited! Come in and drop your backpack off,” I said, motioning him to come inside. Will followed me in. We raced up the stairs, and he tossed his backpack in my bedroom.

“What should we do first?” Will asked me. “We could go bowling, hiking, the arcade…”

“Bowling!” I decided. Somehow even though a brand new bowling alley had opened up in the Starcourt Mall, none of us had gone yet.

“I knew you’d pick that,” Will said smugly.

“You know me too well,” I replied. “C’mon let’s go!” I grabbed his hand and we raced out of the house. I locked the door behind me, and we hopped on our bikes to the Starcourt Mall. “Maybe we can get some ice cream afterward and laugh at Steve in his sailor uniform,” I jokingly suggested.

“Wouldn’t that be kind of mean?” Will asked facetiously.

“No, it’d be mean to laugh at him and not buy any ice cream,” I said wryly.

Will laughed. “Oh cause that makes all the difference.”

“So how have we not gone to this bowling alley yet?” I wondered.

“I think everyone was kind of hoping to go all together, but after everything that’s happened, we never got a chance,” Will surmised.

“I’m glad it’s just us going for the first time,” I confessed.

“Me too,” he agreed.

Soon we found ourselves at the mall. We parked our bikes at the bike rack and headed inside. Once we stepped inside the bowling alley, we were in awe. The place wasn’t anything like the regular bowling alley Hawkins had had for years. This one, which was called Starcourt Lanes, was futuristic, with black lights, neon, posh red leather chairs at each lane, and club music.

“Whoa…” Will and I both looked around, our mouths agape as we were greeted with the pulsing bass of “Blue Monday,” by New Order.

“Even the music here is awesome!” I shouted, trying to make sure Will heard me over the music. “Not like the oldies they play at the Hawkins Bowling Alley.”

“Yeah!” Will agreed. “Let’s go get shoes.” We headed to the counter to rent bowling shoes and get a lane. The older acne ridden teenage boy working behind the counter took our money and gave us our shoes and lane number 9. We made our way over to lane 9 with our shoes in hand. After changing shoes, we picked out bowling balls from the rack and headed over to the keyboard at our lane to enter our names into the automatic scorer computer. I let Will go first. Soon enough we were all ready to bowl.

“You’re up!” I said. He smiled back at me, eager to be the first of the party to bowl. He wound up and released the ball. It hit seven out of the ten pins, leaving three on the right side. “Hey, not bad,” I encouraged him.

He didn’t respond, concentrating on his technique. The pin bar lifted up, signaling he could bowl his second ball. He bowled, managing to keep the ball heading straight for the right side. He knocked the last three pins and got a spare. Turning around, he smiled as he headed toward me to sit down on one of the chairs. “Easy peasy.” I got up to high-five him before he sat down and then headed to the ball return machine to pick up my ball. I walked toward the foul line at the foot of the lane. Taking a deep breath, I wound up and released the ball. It was headed for that sweet spot just between the 1 pin and 3 pin. The unmistakable sound of pins flying. I got a strike!

“Nice Robert! A strike on your first turn!” Will jumped out of his seat with excitement. He high-fived me as I went to sit back down. After that I turned to look at the screen, which flashed the X with a cool space-themed animation with stars.

The game went by pretty quickly since there were only two of us. Will got his first strike on his third turn, and I didn’t get any more until around my seventh turn. Then I got two in a row. Later in the game the gestures of encouragement turned into light teasing. While it was pretty close, I pulled off the victory in the end, scoring 118 while Will’s total was 97.

“Good game,” Will extended his hand out for me to shake it.

“Good game,” I shook his hand.

“Let’s do another one! That was too fast.”

“Oh you want a rematch?” I teased him.

“Maybe…”

I chuckled. “You’re on.”

Will pressed the button to start the next game. The scoreboard cleared, and the pins reset. He started his turn, winding up and releasing the ball. All the pins came crashing down earning him a strike. He did a little dance as he spun around to face me, a smirk on his face.

“Ok! I see you!” I laughed.

“Just had to get warmed up,” he gloated.

Our second game was even more competitive than the first, but we found a good balance between taunting and encouragement. It was all in good fun, and we were both good sports about it. Still I ended up beating him again, as I had always been better than him at bowling. I scored 132 while he scored 114.

“Damn Robert, you’re too good at this,” Will said.

“Hey, you almost beat my score from the last game. You’re getting better. Wanna play one more?”

“No, that’s alright. We should go do something else,” he decided.

I frowned. I hoped he wasn’t too bitter about losing to me twice. “You’re not too disappointed, are you?”

Will looked me in the eyes. “No. I had fun! I don’t care about losing. I just don’t want to be here the whole day when there’s so many other things to do! Besides, I’m getting kind of hungry.”

I looked at my watch. It was a little after noon. “I’m glad you had fun, because I did too,” I grinned. He smiled back. “You pick lunch,” I offered.

“Anywhere in the food court, I guess” Will suggested. We started changing back into our normal sneakers.

“Sounds good to me,” I agreed. Once we finished tying our shoes, we dropped our bowling shoes back at the counter and left the alley. As we walked through the mall, I found myself staring at his left hand, wanting desperately to reach out and hold it. It reminded me of all the time before we were together and the restraint I used to have to put on myself every time I was around him. If we weren’t in public, I’d have nothing to worry about. But we were in the Starcourt Mall, and pretty much everyone from school hung out here now. If any one of them saw us doing anything more than what two friends hanging out would do, we’d be bullied to no end. Ever since we started dating we did our best to be subtle while in public spaces. While on our first date, we used the cover of darkness in the movie theater to make out. But seeing the faces of random classmates I recognized here made me realize that nowhere was safe other than in our homes or out in the woods or something. The idea that we could do whatever we wanted wherever we wanted until school starts in a few weeks was just some silly fantasy.

“Not here,” Will said quietly, seeing my hand starting to gravitate toward his. “I know. It’s hard for me too,” he tried to comfort me.

We kept walking together until we reached the food court. In the middle there was a water fountain adorned by golden fish spitting into it from all around. I giggled a bit the first time I saw it. It was a pretty tacky fountain.

“Alright where do you want to eat?” I asked Will, looking around at all the options.

Will pointed to Imperial Panda, the Chinese fast food place. “There.”

“You’re starting to really like Chinese, aren’t you?” I noted.

“I guess,” he shrugged. We got on line for Imperial Panda. Fortunately there wasn’t much of a line, and we were able to get our food pretty quickly. They gave us ginormous portions, stuffing as much as they could fit in the styrofoam clamshell takeout boxes. After we paid for our food, we found a table and sat down to eat.

“You think this will be as good as the normal takeout place downtown?” I asked.

“Only one way to find out,” Will grinned, opening his box and picking up his plastic fork.

We started eating. Will was chowing down on his orange chicken, which I had also gotten.

“It’s alright,” he said. He tried his beef with broccoli and lo mein next. After swallowing the last bit of food in his mouth, he said, “The downtown place is better, but this isn’t bad.”

I nodded in agreement. “At least we know Benny’s is better than Burger King.”

“Are we going to start running out of food court options because everywhere in town is better?” He laughed before putting a forkful of lo mein in his mouth.

“No, Scoops Ahoy is the best ice cream around!” I claimed.

“Because Steve works there?” he gave me a knowing look.

“No, I actually like it better…but Steve working there doesn’t hurt,” I admitted.

He smiled smugly at me.

“And beside that, there are still a lot more options here than we’ve ever had before. It’s like a whole new world of cuisines.”

“You think Mike has gotten El to try those cuisines?” Will wondered.

“Mike’s not that adventurous himself when it comes to food. His idea of eating fancy is using a knife and fork for pizza.”

Will snorted, and almost spat out his food. He covered his mouth and swallowed. “Sorry that could have been really gross.”

I laughed. “No worries.”

“Remember when El would only eat Eggos?”

“Yeah, who could forget her infamous three layer chocolate sauce and whipped cream Eggo sandwich?”

“Lucas almost puked watching her stuff that in her mouth,” Will recalled.

“I still remember her expression when she tried pizza for the first time at Mike’s house.” I mimicked her shocked and euphoric expression. “This is…peet-suh?” I said trying to sound like her.

Will was laughing uncontrollably. “That’s spot on!”

I did feel kind of bad making fun of El, but Will knew I wasn’t trying to be nasty. Besides, El was much more articulate and well-versed in food now, so she would probably think it was funny how ignorant she used to be about various foods like pizza that she currently eats all the time.

“I hope El’s doing ok, with the party being all shook up from Lucas leaving,” I said on a more serious note.

Will’s cheery expression became much more solemn. “It’s got to be tough when you finally find a group of friends and some semblance of a normal life, and then something like this happens. What does that do to someone like her?” he wondered.

“I think we need to hang out with her more, show her that we’re still there for her,” I suggested. Will nodded. We finished our food and threw away our trash. “Wanna look around the mall some more before we go?” I asked.

“Sure,” Will accepted my offer.

Walking past Scoops Ahoy we saw Steve scooping ice cream. We shouted his name and waved at him. It took him a second to spot us but when he did, he gave us a sailor’s salute before returning his attention to his customer. Steve really took the naval theme seriously. We went over to JC Penny to look at clothes. Will found a bunch of t-shirts and shorts to try on. He showed off a bunch of them to me after trying them on. I found a striped sweater I liked but it was expensive and not on sale. In the end, we didn’t buy anything, not like we were loaded with cash after going to that swanky bowling alley and getting lunch anyway.

After we walked out the automatic sliding doors at the entrance, I looked to Will and asked him what we should do next. He decided we should go swimming. Fortunately he had packed his swim trunks with him in his backpack, which was at my house.

We returned back to my place, changed into our swim trunks and headed for Hawkins Community Pool. It was crowded at the pool today, though to be fair it was a hot day and the middle of the afternoon. Heather was on duty when we arrived.

“We haven’t really swam much since that time at Steve’s house, have we?” Will said as we looked for a couple of chaises to stick our towels and belongings on.

“No, I guess we haven’t,” I replied. “You weren’t with us that day when Dustin went goo-goo for Heather. Too busy getting your haircut,” I smiled at him, looking at his hair.

“No regrets,” Will said, ruffling his bangs a bit to get them out of his eyes.

“We should go to the pool more though. Take advantage of it while the weather’s still nice, you know?”

“Yeah, for sure!” His eyes caught something. “Look, two open chairs!” he exclaimed, pointing to a couple of empty chaises on the opposite end of the pool from us. We walked briskly over to them, not wanting to break the “no running” rule that was heavily enforced. Fortunately we were able to grab them before anyone else tried to claim them for themselves.

We put our stuff down and took off our shirts. I took the bottle of sunscreen out of my bag and we took turns squirting small amounts of sunscreen onto our hands to spread around. Finally we were left with only our backs that needed sunscreen. “I’ll do your back if you do mine,” Will suggested.

I blushed. Rubbing Will’s bare back with sunscreen was not something I was expecting to do today, especially not in front of all these people. I squirted some sunscreen onto my palms and started rubbing it all over his back. As I spread it around his shoulder blades, I noticed a group of boys a little older than us staring and snickering at us. They were drying off, seemingly about to leave. I froze, getting that butterflies in my stomach feeling. Will craned his neck around, noticing I had stopped prematurely.

“Everything ok?”

“Don’t look now, but there’s a group of boys laughing at us,” I said nervously.

Will ignored my warning and spotted the group. He turned back to me quickly, looking very embarrassed. “Oh jeez, I should’ve just tried to reach back there myself.”

Not wanting Will to feel ashamed, I shrugged off my apprehension. “No, it’s easier for me to do it, and your back will be better protected this way.”

The group started heading our way, as our chairs were on their way to the exit.

“Look at the fairies giving each other massages,” one of them snickered.

“Disgusting,” another one said. They continued past us, laughing.

My sunscreen lathered hands balled into fists. “I’m just helping my friend put sunscreen on his back!” I yelled back at them.

Will grabbed my arm, shaking his head. “It’s not worth it, Robert,” he advised me, as the group walked away, ignoring or not hearing my explanation.

I exhaled, knowing he was right. I was relieved that that group of bullies wasn’t sticking around while we swam.

I finished applying sunscreen to his back, finishing around his lower back near his waist. “Alright, my turn,” I said, turning around to face away from him. He squeezed some sunscreen out of the bottle, lathered it in his hands and started rubbing my shoulder blades. He had to reach a bit higher than me, since he was shorter. I was about four inches taller than him. I couldn’t help but enjoy the feeling of his hands rubbing my back, just as I had enjoyed rubbing his back.

Soon enough, we were all ready to swim. We jumped in, finding a good spot that we wouldn’t jump on top of other people in the pool. The water was a good balance between cool and warm, but it was heavily chlorinated. The water in Steve’s pool was less so, and therefore less irritating to my eyes.

We watched a group of kids a little younger than us spraying each other with water guns. I was surprised they even allowed them at the pool. Or maybe they weren’t, and Heather just didn’t enforce that rule. Who knows? “We should get water guns,” I decided as I pushed my wet bangs out of my face.

“That would be fun,” Will agreed. He looked up at Heather, who was watching everyone in the pool, her eyes concealed by her giant Jackie-O shades. “That’s Heather, right?” he asked me, trying to point subtly at her without her noticing.

“Yeah, that’s her,” I confirmed.

“So are Dustin and Heather a thing, cause that seems a little unlikely?” he wondered.

“He likes to think they are, but I have no idea,” I laughed. “All I know is she likes him enough to have given him free lifeguard lessons, and they seem to have paid off.”

“Imagine how jealous Stacey would be if she saw them together,” Will chuckled. Both of us were in shallow enough water to stand, the water level reaching up to Will’s shoulders and my upper chest.

“Imagine how jealous Jennifer Hayes would be if she knew we were together,” I giggled quietly enough so no one else would hear.

“She’d be so devastated,” Will acknowledged. “I know she really likes me. I used to think, wouldn’t life be easier if I could just like her back that way? But no matter how hard I tried to have feelings for her, it never compared to what I feel for you.”

“Sorry, I guess I’m just cuter than she is,” I flirted.

“Maybe a little bit,” Will teased back.

“A little bit?!” I splashed him.

“Hey!” he yelped as he recoiled from my splash. He splashed me back. We got into a splash fight, laughing as we tried to create bigger splashes. Some elderly women near us started giving us dirty looks for disturbing their pool time. We apologized and swam to another part of the pool that was emptier.

We settled down and continued talking. “So Jonathan’s started teaching me camera stuff this past week.”

“I thought I was going to teach you camera stuff,” I whined.

“You can teach me too,” he laughed. “I’m still trying to get the hang of f-stops and shutter speeds, and Jonathan’s getting tired of trying to explain them.”

“Is he still taking pictures for the Hawkins Post?”

“Yeah. And also working shifts at Radio Shack. He switched over from Melvald’s cause they were cutting down the number of employees. My mom’s job is safe though, don’t worry.”

“That’s good. He must be making a lot this summer,” I observed.

“I don’t know what he does with it all. Saving it for college maybe?” Will wondered.

“NYU is expensive.”

“Yup.”

From the corner of my eye I spotted a group of middle-aged women sitting on chaises across the pool. The one that particularly stood out to me was in an aqua and hot pink swimsuit sitting on a chaise across the pool. Her dyed blonde hair was up in a high ponytail and her ears were adorned with seashell earrings. She had on a white bead necklace around her neck. I squinted a bit as I stared at her longer, trying to figure out why she looked so familiar. 

The woman waved casually at us with a slight smile.

“Wait, that’s…”

“Mrs. Wheeler,” Will finished my sentence. We waved back awkwardly. Her subdued greeting was notably not the usual warm one we got when either of us would show up at Mike’s house.

“What is she doing here?” I wondered out loud.

At that moment, Heather climbed down from her lifeguard chair and started to walk back toward the locker rooms. Out of the mens locker room stepped out none other than Billy Hargrove in a pair of red swim trunks, his hair curly golden brown, his tan muscles gleaming from freshly applied sun tan lotion. He rocked a pair of gold mirrored aviators and a whistle on a red elastic band around his neck.

Mrs. Wheeler and the other women all stared at Billy, completely transfixed.

Heather walked by Billy, chewing gum and staring at him flirtatiously.

Stone-faced, Billy walked past her without much acknowledgment, but soon stopped as he spotted a plus-sized young boy running on the deck on the opposite side of the pool. He blew his whistle twice at the boy, and spit it out of his mouth. “Hey! No running on my watch!” he yelled from across the pool. "I gotta warn you again and you’re banned for life! You wanna be banned for life?”

The boy shook his head.

“Didn’t think so.” Billy blew his whistle again, and the boy awkwardly stepped away sheepishly.

Billy resumed his route over to the lifeguard chair. Mrs. Wheeler and the other women still eying him like a piece of meat. “Afternoon, ladies.”

“Afternoon, Billy,” all of them said in unison, smiles on their faces.

Billy glanced over at Mrs. Wheeler. “Dig the new suit, Mrs. Wheeler.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a seductive smile as she grasped the back bar of her chaise.

Billy reached the lifeguard chair and climbed up. He was king of Hawkins High and now he was King of Hawkins Community Pool, sitting on his red umbrella shaded throne.

“Did you see that? Billy just flirted with Mike’s mom,” Will grimaced.

“And she looked totally into it too,” I added.

“Gross,” we said in unison, looking up toward Billy sitting in his lifeguard tower. There was something so magnetically attractive about him, but Will and I both knew he was much uglier underneath that gleaming golden facade. It didn’t take long before he caught us gawking at him, the older boy flashing an ever so subtle smirk at us before turning his attention elsewhere. We quickly averted our gaze, both of us feeling quite awkward.

After the weirdness we saw unfold between Billy and Mrs. Wheeler, we spent another fifteen minutes or so hanging out in the pool before we decided to get out and dry off. We sat on our chaises for a while to let the sun finish drying us off and not let them go to waste. Finally once we were all dry, we gathered our things and biked home.

Once we were back at my place, Will and I took turns showering, wanting to wash the chlorine away. I let him go first and waited in my room for him to finish. Fifteen minutes later, he came out of the bathroom dressed and hair freshly blowdried. I entered the bathroom with my clothes from earlier, which was humid from his shower. The mirror was slightly fogged up and the tile walls of the shower still wet. I undressed and stepped into the shower, turning on the faucet to my desired temperature. I decided to take a cold shower this time because it was hot out and I wouldn’t take as long that way. Soon enough, I finished my shower, got dressed and blowdried my hair. I returned to my bedroom, where Will was waiting for me patiently. It was around 4:30pm.


	7. That Burnin’ Yearnin’ Feelin’

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING! THIS CHAPTER IS RATED EXPLICIT FOR SMUT! UNDERAGE WARNING APPLIES.
> 
> If you would like to avoid that sort of content, feel free to skip to the next chapter. I totally understand.

“Will, want to listen to that record I bought the other day when Max was with us?”

“Sure,” he replied. We were sitting on my bed, thinking of how to pass the time. “What artist did you say it was?”

“Soft Cell,” I answered.

“Never heard of them.”

I pulled the record off my shelf and showed the cover to him. “This single is supposed to be their biggest hit, and it’s the extended version with a bonus track attached to it,” I noted. “Their stuff is like really clubby, I think. Something different.”

“Oh interesting! Put it on the turntable!” Will urged me.

I took the plastic wrap off the record, throwing it in my waste basket, and pulled the record out of the sleeve. I put it on my turntable and put the needle down to start it.

Soon my room was filled with a fast paced percussion and synth beat of the song “Tainted Love.” We were tapping our feet on the floor. At the 18-second mark, the vocals came in. Will was really digging the track. Neither of us had really listened to music like this before. It was more sensual, more raw, yet somehow polished at the same time. It felt ahead of its time. Then something came over me. I started dancing in a way I had never thought to before, popping my hips more, bending my knees more, even thrusting a bit. It was the way I imagined a stripper would dance, and a kind of dancing I would only ever do with no one else around. But with Will in this moment, I felt no shame. I could dance however I wanted. At first Will giggled a bit at the way I was moving around, but as I kept going, he just stared at me, bobbing his head up and down. He looked confused yet also entranced.

A few minutes later, the first song blended seamlessly into the second song, “Where Did Our Love Go,” and a snap beat came in. I snapped my fingers to the beat as I waved my arms down in front of me. I mouthed the easy-to-pick-up lyrics to Will.

_“Baby, baby. Where did our love go? Oh, don’t you leave me. Don’t you leave me no more. I’ve got this burnin’, yearnin’, yearnin’ feelin’ inside me. Oooh deep inside me. And it hurts so bad…”_

“Robert…” Will breathed.

“Shhh.” I put a finger to his lips. “Just enjoy.”

I took off my shirt, doing a little striptease for him. I waved my shirt around before tossing it aside. I don’t know what came over me, but I went with it. Something about the music was intoxicating and I think Will felt it too. I walked my fingers up Will’s left thigh as he sat on my bed, his hazel eyes locked on me. He got the chills as my fingers graced the skin on his lower thigh. He was breathing heavily, totally aroused.

Having had enough of him watching, I pulled him toward my body and wrapped my arms around him. We started grinding as my hands trailed down his back. Will put his hands on my hips, letting the sensual beat guide his movements. Suddenly Will pressed his lips against mine and we started making out. His tongue aggressively pushed into my mouth, and I sucked on it as the nine minute song came to a conclusion. Once the room became quiet, I moved the needle off the record, and Will pulled off his shirt.

“Your mom’s not going to be home any time soon, is she?” Will asked.

“No, she has a dinner meeting, fortunately. The house is ours until like 8 or something,” I explained.

“Good,” Will breathed before returning to kissing me. He pulled us onto my bed to continue making out. “Your bed is so much bigger than mine. More room to roll around,” he giggled. Will had a twin-sized bed while I had a full-sized bed.

He started sucking at my neck, his teeth lightly scraping my skin. I groaned softly as I held onto Will’s torso.

“I want you, Robert,” he whispered in my ear seductively. “ _All_ of you.” He grabbed my crotch through the fabric of my shorts.

I stared at him for a moment shocked at his assertiveness, but relishing it at the same time. “Then have me.” I pulled him back onto my neck. He continued kissing my neck and then started moving down toward my chest. His tongue danced around my nipples, which hardened from the sensation. I moaned with pleasure as I tilted my head back.

His hands gracefully moved from caressing the sides of my lower torso to the waist band of my shorts. He undid the button and unzipped my fly. Helping him, I lifted myself up a bit to let him pull my shorts off. I was left in nothing but my boxers, which were starting to tent.

Will eyed my crotch lustfully. I didn’t think we would take things this far so soon, but I had obviously made him extremely horny with my dancing. He grabbed my erection and massaged it through the fabric of my plaid boxers.

“Will…” I moaned between heavy breaths.

Will took his hand off my dick and looked into my lustful eyes.

“I’m sorry if this is too much too fast,” he apologized.

“…I want you too,” I breathed.

“Then ravage me, Robert,” he purred, relinquishing his control over me.

I spun us over so I was on top of him. I sucked at his neck and collarbone. Will grabbed my dark brown hair and let his fingers run through it. Once I had had my fill, I started planting kisses down his chest. I licked his nipples. They stiffened from my tongue caressing them.

“Urmmm, don’t stop,” Will moaned. He was clearly enjoying himself.

I continued down to his smooth pale stomach, kissing his innie belly button. I needed this release. We hadn’t done anything like this since that night he snuck up to my bedroom window, and we were already further than we had gone before. I had a feeling it would be another long time before we could do this again.

He guided my hands toward his shorts. Knowing what he wanted, I undid his fly and pulled his shorts off. His white boxers were tenting.

“My underwear too,” he murmured.

“Are you sure you want me to do this?” I asked him.

“Yes,” he said. “As long as you’re ok with it.”

“I’m ok with it,” I consented. I hooked my fingers under the waistband of his boxers and pulled them down. His five and a half inch circumsized erection bounced into its natural place after his boxers were pulled down low enough. He kicked his boxers off his ankles and lay bare before me.

“You’re beautiful, Will,” I remarked as I gazed down at his fully naked body, some moles dotted here and there. He was a little thicker than me, but I was a bit longer.

“My dick isn’t too small for you?” he asked.

“No, it’s perfect.” I smiled.

He blushed. “Let me see yours now!”

I nodded. He grabbed the waistband of my boxers and began to pull them down. My six-inch circumsized erection bounced back into place as he slid my boxers down past it. I kicked my boxers off once they reached my ankles and pulled off my socks.

He gazed up at me taking in my pale naked body for the first time. “You’re beautiful too, Robert.”

“Thanks,” I said, blushing. “Can I touch it?” I asked.

“No, you have to sit there and stare at it all evening,” Will snarked. “Yes, you can touch it,” he laughed.

I rolled my eyes. “You’re such a tease, Byers,” I whined.

I reached my right hand out and starting stroking his dick. It felt amazing in my hand. I started fondling his hairless balls with my left hand.

“Can I suck on it?” I asked him.

“Please,” Will begged.

Taking the base of his dick in my hand, I wrapped my lips around the head. I started sucking and licking it. I hoped I was doing it right. I had never given a blowjob before, but I was sure Will hadn’t either, so we were both figuring it out.

“Oh man, that feels so good,” Will whimpered as he placed his hand on the back of my head, needing something to grip onto.

My tongue made its way to his ball sac. I started licking it before sucking on both of his balls individually. Returning to his dick, I kept sucking, pushing it further into my mouth. I loved the taste of Will and how he felt in my mouth. Actually doing this was so much better than I could have ever imagined. I knew this moment would fuel my nights without him in my bed.

“I’m gonna come soon,” Will squealed, pushing his head back against my pillow.

I pulled off his dick to talk. I wiped my mouth of saliva and precum as I looked up at him. “It’s ok. You can do it while I’m sucking,” I replied.

“You sure?” Will looked at me like I was nuts.

“Yes. Your dick tastes amazing by the way.”

“Ok. And thanks, I guess,” he smiled.

I went back to sucking, humming as I picked my bobbing rhythm back up. I took his whole length in my mouth every time I came down on his shaft. I made sure to avoid hitting the back of my throat so I wouldn’t gag. Will moaned as his orgasm got stronger, his breaths becoming faster and more desperate.

He convulsed as his orgasm peaked and grabbed my hair. “I’m coming!” I felt his load shoot into my eager mouth. I swallowed it all. It tasted delicious, a bit salty. I pulled off his dick, licking it clean.

Will took a moment to catch his breath. “Alright, my turn!”

We switched positions, Will now leaning over me as my back was against a pillow at the head of my bed. He grabbed my dick and starting pumping it, his other hand cupping my hairless balls. Soon enough he leaned in and took my length in his mouth. I now realized how much pleasure he had been feeling.

“Damn, that does feel really good,” I moaned.

Will reached all the way down to the base, gagging at first, but soon getting used to it filling his mouth. He got into a rhythm, bobbing up and down and humming as he sucked. Wanting to savor the moment, he slowed his pace down, swirling his tongue around the tip of my dick. He moved to my balls flicking them with his tongue before sucking on them.

“Keep going!” I gasped.

He returned to my dick, picking up the pace of his sucking.

My breaths got faster and faster as I felt myself starting to orgasm. I clenched Will’s hair as his head moved up and down.

“Will, I’m gonna come!” I squealed. He continued sucking without hesitation. My toes curled and my legs stiffened as I let out a moan and released into Will’s mouth. He swallowed my load, continuing to lick residual cum off my dick until it was clean.

“Your cum tastes pretty good,” Will commented, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand.

I started to relax, my breathing getting slower. “Thanks. Yours too.”

We grabbed our boxers off the floor of my bedroom and put them back on.

“Did I do alright?” Will asked gently.

I caressed his soft cheeks. “You did great, Will. I hope I did alright too.”

“Of course, you were great,” he beamed. “Best day ever, right?” he winked at me.

“You know it,” I grinned back at him before planting a small kiss on his lips. He kissed me back. We gazed into each others’ loving eyes never closer and more in love than in this moment.

We starting grabbing the rest of our clothes off the floor. As Will bent down to grab his t-shirt, I stared at his rear. “You have such a nice butt, Will. I’ll have to get a better look at it next time,” I teased.

Will’s face got red as he spun around. “Oh my god, Robert!”

“Hey, I saw you staring at my butt while I was dancing earlier. Don’t deny you feel the same way about mine.”

Will groaned, rolling his eyes. I wasn’t wrong. I gave him a dopey grin. Unable to resist it, he grinned back. I pulled him in for another kiss, this time grabbing his butt. Will was still holding his t-shirt as his arms were around me, and his eyes grew wider in shock after he felt my hand on his rear. I moved his free hand onto mine.

“Next time…” I whispered seductively in his ear. He nodded eagerly.

We separated and finished getting dressed, both of us hungry and ready to eat dinner.


	8. The Picnic

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you're here and you skipped Chapter 7, keep in mind this chapter takes place on the same day as Chapters 6 and 7. To summarize what you might have missed, Will and Robert experimented a bit last chapter, bringing them even closer than they've already been.

Will and I opened my refrigerator door. We hovered over the contents on the shelves picking out the items we needed for the picnic dinner we had planned: sliced roast beef, cheddar cheese, lettuce, tomatoes, mustard, and lemonade. Out of the pantry we grabbed some sourdough sandwich bread as well as a large bag of regular potato chips, pouring some into a bowl for us to share. After making our sandwiches, we put everything we needed in a basket other than the pitcher of lemonade, grabbed a large blanket and brought everything out to the grass in my backyard.

It was still light out, but the sun was starting to go down. Some people call this time of day golden hour because the light the sun gives off when it’s closer to the horizon tends to appear golden in color, which is exactly how the light streaming from between the branches of the pine trees in my backyard looked. Other people call it magic hour because there’s something magical about the quality of light at this time of day that makes everything look really pretty. I brought my Pentax MX out with me to our picnic because I knew it’d be a good time to take some photographs.

“Will, can I take your picture?” I asked him after we sat down on the cardinal red blanket we laid out. “The lighting right now is perfect.”

“Yeah, that’d be great,” he accepted.

“Can you scoot a little that way so the sun’s behind you?”

“Sure,” he said. He scooted to where I had indicated.

“Wow, you look stunning,” I complimented him. His hair had a beautiful backlight from the sun and the lighting on his face was soft and even.

“Thanks,” Will blushed.

I picked up my camera and held it up to my eye to look into the viewfinder. I zoomed in my lens to a slightly telephoto focal length and adjusted the settings to make it a nice portrait shot with a shallow depth of field, meaning the background would be blurred while Will would remain in focus.

“Smile!”

Will grinned for me as he sat cross-legged on the blanket, his arms bracing himself slightly behind him so his shoulders were pushed a little forward.

I took the picture, fully confident it would be amazing once it was developed.

“That’s going on my nightstand in a frame,” I decided as I put my camera down.

“So it was good?” Will asked hopefully.

“You make any picture look good, Will,” I remarked.

He smiled. “Can I get a copy?”

“Of course!”

“Perks of dating a photographer,” he quipped.

I laughed lightly. “Alright let’s eat.”

We started unpacking the picnic basket, taking out our sandwiches, which we had wrapped with plastic wrap to reliably transport them, the bowl of chips, plates, and reusable plastic cups.

“Your yard is so pretty. Do you eat out here with your mom during the summer?” Will asked me, looking at the outdoor dining table and chairs we had closer to the patio door.

“Sometimes. Mostly when she grills hamburgers, chicken, or steak. If she was here for dinner tonight, I’m sure she would have grilled for us.”

“Has she taught you how to grill?”

“Not yet. I should ask her to, now that you mention it.” I took a bite of my sandwich. It was quite tasty. The bread was pretty fresh and the roast beef had a nice flavor to it. I was careful not to add too much mustard to overpower the meat. The cheddar was sharp, which gave it a strong kick as well, while the lettuce and tomato gave the sandwich a good crunch. Will seemed to be enjoying his as much as I was mine.

“So about those f-stops and shutter speeds…” Will said after swallowing a bite of his sandwich, which he was almost done with.

“Yeah ok." I paused for a moment to gather my thoughts and think about the best way to explain these concepts. "So f-stops represent the ratio of the focal length to the diameter of the entrance pupil in millimeters. The entrance pupil is the physical opening of the lens that light enters through. For example if a lens’s focal length is 35mm and the entrance pupil diameter is 7mm, then the f/stop is 5. Since you don’t control the entrance pupil diameter directly, you control it by changing the f/stop. As you change the f-stop of the lens, the diameter of the opening changes, which lets in more or less light depending on how big the opening is.

“Oh, I think I get it. So a bigger diameter would result in a smaller f/stop number, so you’d want to use a smaller f/stop number to let in more light.”

“Exactly,” I smiled, glad to see he was comprehending it. I had borrowed plenty of books from the library to read up on how this stuff worked, so I could understand what I was doing when changing settings on my camera. “Shutter speeds are fractional measurements of the time the film is exposed to light by the shutter opening and closing. So a faster shutter speed means a darker picture and a slower shutter speed means a brighter picture, keeping all other settings the same. But you have to account for both the f-stop and shutter speed when exposing the film. If you change one, you have to adjust the other to maintain the same exposure. For example if I go from f/5.6 to f/8, I would need to decrease my shutter speed by one stop in order to keep the same exposure.”

“What do you mean one stop?”

“As in the amount of light being taken in. Going up a stop is doubling the amount of light being taken in, while going down a stop is halving the amount of light being taken in. It’s just a standard of measurement for photography to better compare the relationship between f-stops, shutter speed, and film speed, which is the sensitivity of the film to light. That last one’s a fixed value that doesn’t change unless you change the film roll. Usually the f-stop is more of a creative choice. If I’m taking a portrait like I just did of you, I’d want to use a smaller f-stop number because that will allow for a shallower depth of field, meaning I can blur the background and make you stand out from it.”

Will finished swallowing a sip of his lemonade. “Wow, this is a lot of information to take in. I should have brought a notebook,” Will laughed.

“Yeah, sorry that was quite an info dump,” I chuckled. “Do you at least have a better understanding than before?”

“Yeah, it definitely helped. Thank you for explaining all that. But I still think I’d need a more hands on demonstration with a camera to show how the relationships work between them all.” He picked up a few potato chips and started munching on them.

“Sure, that makes sense.” I took the last few bites of my sandwich, which I hadn’t finished because I was so busy explaining photography concepts to Will. I took a sip of my lemonade after I finished my sandwich.

“I’m so happy with how this day’s turned out,” Will remarked. “Even with those stupid boys at the pool laughing at us. That just seems so inconsequential now.”

“Couldn’t agree more,” I beamed. “So… what’s happened to Dustin? I haven’t seen him in ages.” I grabbed some potato chips and put one in my mouth. It made a loud crunch as I bit down on it.

Will’s smile faded. “I think he’s just really busy with junior lifeguard training and water polo practice.”

“So he’s a merman now? He basically lives in the water.”

Will chuckled. “Yup, sounds about right.”

“I’ve been thinking… I’m probably going to go out for cross country with Max,” I informed him. Ever since Max told me she was joining, I had been considering joining too, but I didn’t want to say anything to Will about it until I felt like I had made up my mind. I figured there’d be no point in telling him if I decided in the end I wasn’t going to bother joining the team.

He was slower than usual to respond. “Oh, that’s cool,” Will finally said softly.

“What about you, Will? Any sports you’re thinking about doing? Doesn’t have to be in the fall. There’s soccer in the winter, golf and tennis in the spring. You could even do cross country with Max and me.”

“Probably not,” he shrugged. “Maybe I’ll change my mind later, but right now, I want to join the AV Club, you know like the one we all used to be a part of.”

“I was going to do that too,” I clarified. “They don’t have to be mutually exclusive.”

“You’re going to have practice every weekday afternoon and meets every week, sometimes even on weekends.” He seemed almost irritated, which made a little confused.

I scratched my head. “I’m sure it won’t be too difficult to manage,” I tried to assure him.

“You don’t get it. You can’t go to cross country practice and after school AV Club meetings. They’re at the same time,” Will stressed.

“So I have to make a choice…” I realized.

“Yeah.”

“Well, I can join AV club after cross country wraps up, so I’m going to do cross country first,” I decided.

Will sighed, turning away from me.

“What’s wrong?” I prodded.

“Nothing,” he responded coarsely, avoiding eye contact.

“No, please don’t do that to me again,” I begged him. “I thought we were over that.”

Will pursed his lips. “It’s just… I had this vision of you and I keeping the party’s AV Club tradition alive while everyone else ran off to do their sports. Even El wants to do tennis. I don’t know how she’s going to manage that when it’s her first time being in school, and I’ve never actually seen her play tennis, but here we are. Mike’s not doing a sport, but he wants to join drama club and audition for plays. Everyone’s got a thing now. And I thought I’d at least have you to count on to be there with me, but now you want to do cross country,” Will ranted, looking very hurt.

I blinked slowly. “I’m sorry. I thought I could do both.”

“No, it was just some stupid fantasy I had that we’d conquer AV Club together. I shouldn’t have assumed…”

“It’s not stupid, Will. We’ll conquer it together in the winter, but you can still get a head start in the fall. You can be the rogue for once, scouting out how it all works in the high school version so when I’m ready to join, you’ll be able to help me fit right in.”

“So you want me to do all the legwork while you just run?”

“Work? It’s AV Club not a decathlon. Most of the time we were just goofing off with radios anyway.”

Will bristled. “It’s more serious in high school! They actually make movies and do photography stuff too. I thought _you_ of all people would be interested in that.”

“I am, but I’m also interested in running. I want to try other things, and I was really hoping you’d be supportive of me.”

Will took a deep breath. “I’m sorry, I’m being selfish. Of course I’ll go to your meets.”

I put my hand on his shoulder. “I’m not going anywhere, Will. We can still study together, and eat at the same lunch table. And we’ll find time for nights like this one, but maybe indoors ‘cause the weather’s going to suck in a couple of months.”

A faint smile crept across Will’s face. I could tell he was still a little salty about my decision to join cross country instead of AV Club. I decided to drop the topic, not wanting to mar the evening any more than I had already.

“Robert? Will?” I heard my mom call out. She poked her head out the patio door to find us sitting outside on our picnic blanket. The sun had gone down, and it was starting to get dark. “Oh you’re having a picnic, how cute,” she said. “Come inside soon boys, it’s getting dark.”

My face got bright red at the mention of us being cute.

“Have you told her about us yet?” Will whispered.

“No, not yet. Have you told your mom?” I whispered back.

He shook his head. “Not yet.”

“Is it ok if we camp out here tonight?!” I yelled to my mom. “We’ll set up the tent!”

“Sure honey, just make sure to put on some bug spray!” my mom reminded us.

“You want to _camp_ out here?” Will asked, surprised. I hadn’t told him, but I had been planning to camp out here all along. I figured it would be the perfect end to an almost perfect day. Not having that argument would have helped, but oh well.

“It’ll be romantic,” I promised. “In my pretty backyard.”

We cleaned up our picnic and brought everything inside to throw out, put away, or wash. Once that was taken care of, we grabbed my camping tent out of my garage as well as a couple of sleeping bags and brought them out to the backyard along with a couple of pillows from my bed. It took us about seven minutes or so to set up the tent but once we did, I realized I forgot a source of light, so I ran to the garage and grabbed an electric portable lantern as well as the bug spray for us. The last thing I wanted was to wake up covered in mosquito bites. We took turns spraying ourselves. After we sprayed ourselves, we brushed our teeth and Will grabbed his backpack, which contained an extra flashlight with him and his pajamas.

Once we finished all of that, we went back outside to the sky blue colored tent and crawled inside. There was just enough room for the two of us. We changed into our pajamas and lay on top of our sleeping bags, not ready to sleep yet. It was still too early, but going inside now to watch a movie or find some other indoor activity for us to pass the time with would defeat the purpose of camping.

“Are we going to talk about what happened earlier?” I asked, hoping I wouldn’t regret bringing it up.

“You mean our argument?”

“No, the _other_ thing,” I clarified.

“Oh… umm, what’s there to talk about?”

“Well, I guess I wasn’t really expecting us to be doing that kind of thing so soon. I’m not saying I regret it, because I don’t. I loved it, but I just wanted to check in, you know?”

“We did get a _little_ carried away,” he chuckled. “But I really enjoyed it, and I don’t regret it either. I’d be happy to do it again some time, but it doesn’t have to be right away. It should be special. Like this day.”

I was overcome with happiness. “I love you so much, Will. I can’t tell you enough,” I professed, my eyes tearing up.

“I love you too, Robert. To the moon and back.” Will’s eyes also getting watery.

We hugged each other tight, his head pressed against my chest. I felt a single tear fall down my cheek.

“Your heart’s beating fast,” Will pointed out.

“That’s just what you do to me,” I replied.

Will snorted. “You’re so corny!”

“So are you! ‘To the moon and back!’ Ha!” I laughed.

We separated, and he smiled at me as I rubbed my eyes, acknowledging my statement without words.

We talked for another hour or so before deciding to call it a night. We had done so much today that we were pretty exhausted and didn’t feel a need to stay up super late. We undressed and changed into our pajamas, shutting off the lantern and Will’s flashlight once we had crawled into our sleeping bags.

“Still think this was the best day ever?” I asked, my mind dancing around the events of today, but particularly lingering on our little argument at the end of our picnic. I was praying that it hadn’t spoiled his overall opinion of the day too much. I lay on my stomach, my head resting on my pillow and turned toward Will.

“Definitely. I’m sorry I snapped at you earlier. I hope that didn’t ruin it for you.”

“No, of course not. Honestly, I probably would have reacted the same way.” I paused for a moment. “I wonder what tomorrow will bring?”

“It can’t possibly top today, can it?” Will yawned.

“Who knows? Maybe it will be even better,” I murmured before falling asleep.

“Hmm,” Will hummed. He adjusted his head to get comfortable, breathing in my familiar scent on his borrowed pillow and sleeping bag as he fell asleep.


	9. The Surprise

The following morning we woke up pretty early, around 7:30am. We emptied the tent and took it down, bringing everything back into the house. After showering, getting dressed and having a small breakfast, I biked with Will back to his place. Even though I was sure we’d end up hanging out a bunch today too, I knew he needed to spend some time back home since he hadn’t been there for just over 24 hours now.

We arrived at his place. Joyce Byers hadn’t left for work yet and greeted us when we opened the front door.

“You two have fun yesterday?” Joyce asked us.

“So much fun!” Will beamed. I nodded emphatically.

“That’s great! Robert, thanks for having him over,” Joyce said.

“Of course,” I smiled. “You know he’s welcome anytime.”

“Before you go, I wanna show you something in my room,” Will announced, starting to pull me toward his bedroom.

I exchanged a puzzled look with his mom as we left her behind in the living room. I wasn’t sure whether she knew about what Will wanted to show me or not. Will opened the door to his room and walked in, me following closely behind. He went over to his desk and pulled out a large piece of paper, about 11x17 inches, from on top of a stack of drawings.

“I’ve been working on this a while, but it’s done now, and I want you to have it,” Will said, handing me face down what I believed to be a drawing.

I took it from him and flipped it over. It was a portrait of me! In photorealistic detail done by pencil, pen and crayons. He had gotten all my details correct, my dark brown eyes, the shape of my nose and the mole next to it, my hair style and color, which was a medium brown. He had signed his name on the bottom right corner.

“Wow...” I stared at his drawing in awe, my mouth agape.

“I used a photograph of you, which was much harder to work off of than just asking you to pose, but I wanted it to be a surprise,” he explained.

“You’re unbelievably talented, Will. It’s beautiful. Thank you so much!” I set it down on his bed and hugged him, my eyes starting to get a bit watery from how overwhelmed I was feeling. This was by far the best gift I had ever received. The hours of effort he put into this portrait of me really came off the paper.

He hugged me back. “I’m so glad you like it.”

After a moment we let go of each other. “I better go buy a frame for this, so I can display it with the dignity it deserves,” I said, picking the picture back up, careful to only grab around the edges to avoid smearing oil from my skin into the drawing.

“Here, I’ll roll it up for you to make it easier for you to carry home.” He took it from me and rolled it up, the picture side facing inward. He then grabbed a rubber band from one of the supplies cubbies on his desk and twisted it on, handing it back to me once he was finished. I thanked him. “Oh, and you can borrow my backpack to carry it home. I probably should have just brought it with me to your house yesterday, but I forgot.” He opened his backpack and dumped the contents out on his bed from our sleepover yesterday. He held it open and I gently dropped it inside the main compartment. He closed the zipper and handed me his backpack.

Suddenly, Mike’s voice came through Will’s Supercom. “Will! Come in! You there?”

Will rushed over to his Supercom, picked it up and responded back, “Yeah Mike, I’m here, over.”

“Will, is Robert with you? Over.”

“Yeah, over.”

“Can you both meet me and El at the tennis courts pronto? Over.” Mike asked.

“Sure, that shouldn’t be a problem,” he replied cheerily.

“I’ll be there too. Over,” I said, grabbing his Supercom for a second.

“Ok. I’ll see both of you soon. Bring tennis rackets. Over and out.” The Supercom went silent.

“Sounds like El wants us to help her with tennis,” Will guessed as he put his Supercom back on his nightstand.

“Alright, I’ll go drop your drawing off at my house, grab my racket and head over. You should catch up with your mom. You haven’t seen her since yesterday,” I reminded him.

“Yeah ok. See you in a bit,” he waved.

I went up and gave him a peck on the lips. “See you in a bit.” I started to open the door to his bedroom, his backpack on my back.

“Wait, let me walk you out at least!” he urged. He followed me out of his bedroom.

We walked down the hall toward the front door. “I’m heading out, Joyce,” I announced. She always insisted I call her Joyce instead of Mrs. Byers.

“Isn’t that Will’s backpack you’re walking out with?” she questioned me, raising her eyebrow.

“He’s borrowing it to take home a drawing I gave him,” Will explained casually.

“I see. Well, you can’t leave without a hug,” Joyce insisted. She came over to me and squeezed me tight. I hugged her back. Her hair was still slightly damp from washing it. “Thanks again for everything. And don’t forget to thank your mom for me too.” Our moms were friends, but they didn’t see each other all that much, because they both worked long hours. My mom worked for the main land development company in Hawkins and had been on the board that permitted the construction of the Starcourt Mall. Occasionally Joyce and my mom would talk on the phone. I always thought they’d be closer if my mom had also been aware of all the Upside Down stuff.

“No worries. I will,” I assured her. She let go of me and took a few steps back.

I turned to my boyfriend and smiled. “Bye, Will.”

He smiled back. “Bye, Robert. See you soon.”

I walked out, closing the door behind me. I hopped on my bike and headed home. During my ride, I thought about Will’s gift. I knew I needed to give him something in return, something just as special and personal but I couldn’t quite figure out what. A photograph was nothing compared to the hours he must have spent drawing this portrait. I suddenly felt an immense amount of pressure. I didn’t want to overspend and make him feel bad or do the opposite and give him something cheap and dumb. But he didn’t even buy me anything. He created something. I was a horrible artist when it came to drawing, so I knew I wasn’t going to draw him something. But whatever it was I ended up giving him, it had to have the same creative and personal touch as his portrait of me. After about fifteen minutes of biking, I was home again. I raced inside to drop off Will’s portrait of me in my bedroom, placing the rolled up drawing on my desk. I then found my tennis racket under my bed. I wiped the dust off of it. It had been a while since I had used it. Once that was taken care of, I hopped back on my bike again and rode for the tennis courts, the handle of my tennis racket poking out through the top zipper of Will’s backpack.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Right after I left Will’s, Joyce decided to talk to her son for a bit, despite having only a little bit of time before she had to go start her shift at Melvald’s. They sat at their kitchen table, Will’s chair on the right end and Joyce’s on the side toward the window. The room was quiet other than the gentle creak of the rotating fan by the table and the hum of its spinning blades. This was how the Byers kept cool in the blistering hot summer.

“So what did you two do yesterday?” Joyce asked.

Will blushed, his mind immediately jumping to our activities in my bedroom, not something he wanted to think about in front of his mom. He took a small moment to compose himself. “Umm, we went bowling and had lunch at the mall. We also swam at the pool and had a picnic dinner in his backyard. Oh, and we camped out there for the night too,” he enthused.

“Wow, that’s a lot for one day! You must be exhausted,” she observed.

“I’m ok. Really. I slept well last night,” Will assured his mom. He looked around the room and toward the hallway. “Did Jonathan already go to work?”

“No, he said he was taking the day off for some reason. I’m not sure where he went off to.”

“Oh.” Will took a deep breath. He was thinking hard about whether to tell his mom the truth about our relationship and his sexuality right here and now. What would she think? It was a part of him that only a handful of people knew about and he had really only told the party because I persuaded him to. Jonathan and Nancy had walked in on us dancing in his room and the two of us basically had no other choice but to tell them without being awkward about it. Over the past month he wasn’t sure if there was really anything to tell his mom, as our relationship had still been pretty new, and there might have been a chance that it fizzled out and we just returned to being best friends, but now that we had “gone there” yesterday, he was more sure of himself and our relationship. Also he hadn’t wanted to cause her to worry about him even more so than she already does on a daily basis.

“Mom, I need to tell you something.”

“What is it, honey?”

Will bit his lip. He was actually going through with it. “I’m gay, and I’m dating Robert.”

Joyce stared at him for a moment, her eyes filled with love. “I know, honey. I’ve known for a long time.” She placed her hand on his, giving it gentle strokes. “I’d have to be crazy to not know my own son. I’m so proud of you, Will, and I always will be.”

Will started crying tears of joy and hugged his mom. She wrapped her arms around him, putting her left hand behind Will’s head and her right hand on his back, rubbing it a bit.

“I’ve always had a good feeling about Robert. He treats you so well.”

They separated. “I love him so much, Mom,” he sniffled. “But I’m scared… about what’s going to happen to us in high school.”

“I’d be lying if I said it’s not going to be difficult,” Joyce admitted. “But you’ve gone through so much worse. You’re so strong. I know you’ll pull through. Besides, you have each other now. And I’m always here whenever you want to talk about anything.” She paused for a moment. “Do your other friends know? What about Jonathan?”

“Yes, they all know,” Will confirmed. “That fight I told you about between Mike and Lucas… that was about us.”

Joyce’s expression hardened. “If Lucas doesn’t want to be your friend anymore, that’s his loss, and he’s an idiot. Especially after you both saved his life. Ughhhh, now I just want to smack some sense into that kid,” Joyce growled.

“Please don’t,” Will begged.

Joyce smiled lightly before glancing at the clock on the wall. She stood up bringing her coffee mug to the sink to rinse out. “I have to go to work,” she said as she turned on the faucet and let the running water splash into her mug. She put it in the dishwasher and grabbed her keys.

Before she could start down the hall to the front door, Will hugged her, wrapping his arms around her tight.

Joyce hugged him back. “Love you too, sweetie. I’m so glad we had this conversation. I’ll see you later.” They let go of each other. She headed toward the door.

“Wait!”

Joyce turned around to face her son.

“Is it ok if I go out to the tennis courts to play with Robert, Mike and El?”

“Of course,” she replied.

“Thanks! Bye, Mom,” Will waved as she walked out the front door. As soon as her car pulled away, Will ran out to the shed and located his brother’s old tennis racket. He took it out of the black fabric zip cover and examined it, twirling it a bit in his hands. It was a hand-me-down that he had used once a few years ago, a relic of a pre-Upside Down era. He put it back in the case, strapped it over his shoulder and closed the shed door behind him. Finally he hopped on his bike and starting pedaling toward the tennis courts to catch up with the rest of us.  
______________________________________________________________________________

The tennis courts were at the main park in town. It was a public space, so sometimes there would be other people using both courts, and El and Mike would have to wait or come back later if they wanted to practice. When I arrived, I spotted Mike and El rallying. It was empty today. Not that I expected a Tuesday morning to be very crowded at the park. El was wearing a pink polo shirt, a white skirt and bright white sneakers. She definitely looked the part. Mike looked over when he heard the gate open, ignoring the ball heading toward him.

“Mike!” El shouted to get his attention so he wouldn’t get hit in the head, but the ball was coming too fast. El used her powers to swerve the ball out of the way, avoiding catastrophe. The tennis ball bounced in the alley on Mike’s left and hit the back wall. She wiped her nose with her arm.

“Thanks El,” Mike looked relieved. “Hey, Robert!” He looked around, a bit confused. “Where’s Will?” he wondered.

“We’re not tied at the hip!” I chuckled lightly. “He’ll be here in a bit.”

“Good, because we’re gonna play doubles.”

El walked over to us from the other side of the net. “Thanks for coming!” she smiled.

“I don’t know how helpful I’m going to be. I haven’t really played all that much.”

“Neither has Mike, but he’s helping me plenty.”

“Well, my sister was really the one who helped you. She showed you proper grip and form. I’m basically just a sparring partner,” Mike shrugged.

“A good one… when you’re paying attention,” she teased.

Mike turned to me. “She’s getting really good. When I’m not tutoring her, we’re here practicing.”

“Hey, we went shopping the other day,” El reminded him. While we waited for Will, they told me how they had also gone to the mall a few days ago, hitting up the Starcourt Arcade, among other places. Mike had helped El shop for some new clothes for school with money that Hopper gave her. Hopper wasn’t too big on the whole shopping thing, so he welcomed Mike’s eagerness to take over that role for him. I had never heard Mike so excited to go clothes shopping before, but I guess that’s one way having a girlfriend has changed him. That also explained El’s new tennis outfit. I told them about my day with Will yesterday, leaving out the bedroom stuff obviously.

Not too much later we heard the gate open, Will had arrived, his racket slung over his shoulder in its case. “You guys ready to play?” he asked with a grin.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Will and I stood on one side of the net while Mike and El stood on the other. El served the ball to me. I managed to hit it back and start a rally. She wasn’t trying to score on me yet, since Will and I were still warming up. Neither of us had played in a long time, and even then we barely had any experience. Nancy was the most experienced out of anyone I knew. She took lessons when she was in elementary and middle school, but never went out for the high school team because she was too focused on her grades.

We rallied for another fifteen minutes or so before we heard the gate open again. It was Jonathan and Nancy! We stopped playing as they ran over to us, both looking a little frantic.

“Finally we found you two!” Jonathan called out, looking at Will and me.

Will and I glanced at each other, puzzled. Mike and El walked up to the net to get closer to the budding conversation.

“It took a little digging to figure out where you guys were, but here we are,” Nancy said. “Hey, little brother,” she waved at Mike. Mike unenthusiastically waved back. “Hi, El. How’s the tennis coming along?” Nancy asked her.

“Good,” El answered. “I’m getting better every day, I think.”

“I don’t doubt that for a second,” Nancy smiled. “You learned from the best. We’ll have to play again soon.”

“What’s going on?” Will asked his older brother in confusion.

“I have a surprise for both of you,” he announced with a grin.

“What is it?” Will and I both demanded.

He handed us two small slips of card stock.

We read the small print on them: New Order, In Concert, Bismarck Theatre, Chicago, IL, TUE AUG 6 1985 8:00 PM, General Admission, Section: Floor.

My jaw dropped a couple of inches. I couldn’t believe my eyes.

“Oh my god! New Order tickets! For tonight?” Will almost jumped in the air.

“For me too?” I asked him.

“Yup. All four of us are going right now to Chicago. It’s going to be a long drive,” he smiled.

I stared at my ticket. “I… I don’t know what to say…” I stuttered.

“He’s worked hard this summer to buy you these tickets,” Nancy divulged.

“Thank you, thank you, thank you!” Will exclaimed, pouncing on his older brother and hugging him. New Order was one of our favorite bands, and now the four of us were going to see them live.

“This is incredible! Thank you so much, Jonathan!” I squealed.

“Of course! Anything for my favorite couple,” he beamed.

“Best day ever, part two here we come!” Will cheered, looking at me. We both wooed in excitement. Jonathan and Nancy smiled at each other, as they looked on at us celebrating. Then I remembered that Mike and El were here listening to all of this and started to feel a bit guilty.

“Sorry guys. I guess we’ll have to pick this up another day,” I apologized.

“That’s ok,” El smiled lightly. “Go have fun at your concert! You two will love Chicago.” While I had traveled a bit, I had never been to Chicago before even though it wasn’t even that far away from Hawkins compared to some of the other places I had been. Will had never been there either, so El had beaten us to it when she took the bus there last fall to look for her “sister.”

“Why didn’t you tell me this was happening, Nancy!?” Mike demanded. He was clearly upset our doubles practice was getting cut off.

“Because you might have told them and ruined the surprise,” Nancy explained frankly.

“I can keep a secret!” Mike fumed. “Would have been better than wasting our time here.”

Will put a hand on Mike’s shoulder. “Mike, it wasn’t a waste of time. It was nice see you both and get to play, even if it was just for a little bit,” Will tried to comfort him. I nodded in agreement.

“Alright, we gotta get going,” Jonathan said, looking at his watch.

“Bye Mike, bye El,” I waved.

“Oh come here, Robert,” El beckoned me. She hugged me from across the net. “It was good to see you again. Don’t be a stranger.”

Hugging her back, I said, “You too,” We’ll play again real soon. Even tomorrow if you want.”

“Sounds good. Oh, and you can leave your bikes here. I’ll get Papa to drop them off at your houses.”

I was shocked at her generosity. “Wow, that’s really kind of you. Thanks.”

“Of course,” she smiled.

She let go of me and hugged Will next. I hugged Mike and gave him a little pat on the back. He did the same.

“Have fun at your concert,” Mike said. I know you guys really like that band.”

“Thanks. See you tomorrow, hopefully.”

“See you tomorrow.”

Will and I followed Jonathan and Nancy toward the gated exit, waving at Mike and El before closing the gate behind us.

Jonathan’s car was parked in the parking lot right outside the courts. Will and I climbed into the backseat of his car while Nancy took shotgun.

“There’s water and snacks on the floor,” Nancy pointed out.

“Ready to go?” Jonathan asked after everyone buckled their seatbelts.

“Ready,” Will, Nancy and I all said.

Jonathan pulled away from the park and drove toward the highway. Our road trip to Chicago had begun!


	10. The Concert

The drive itself wasn’t a very scenic one. Just a lot of flat open country with not much going on. I’d find myself looking out the passenger window every once in a while hoping to spot something interesting, but I always ended up disappointed. Overall, the bland scenery kept our attention more inside the car than outside of it. Jonathan put on some music for the trip too which helped pass the time.

We listened to Nancy tell us more about how she had given El her initial tennis lessons and how she was delighted to have the opportunity to pick up her old racket again. She also told us about her summer internship at the _Hawkins Post_. Mostly that meant she was grabbing people’s coffees, but every once in a while, the editor would give her something more substantial to do. She even got to write an Op-Ed about the Starcourt Mall. They wanted a teen’s take on how the brand-new mall was affecting life in Hawkins.

I kept catching myself bobbing my leg up and down anxiously. I could hardly contain my excitement for this concert and getting to tour Chicago beforehand. Every now and then during those times when no one in the car was talking, I’d look over at Will, and he’d give me a dopey grin. I could tell he was just as excited as me.

Jonathan was surprised to learn that I had helped Will understand f/stops and shutter speeds last night. “Looks like you don’t need me anymore,” he joked.

Will laughed. “I guess I don’t!”

“Sorry Jonathan, the position for Will’s photography instructor has been filled,” I said in a mocking tone.

“Hey, you’re obviously doing something right,” he conceded.

“How much longer do we have?” Nancy asked, putting Jonathan’s focus back on the route.

“Another hour and a half,” Jonathan answered. We had been driving for about forty-five minutes or so.

The time flew by fairly quickly as we continued to keep ourselves busy with conversation and a short-lived game of “I Spy.” Before we knew it the Chicago skyline came into view. We continued into the city, all of us desperate to find a place to eat lunch and use the bathroom before we started sight-seeing.

We found an inexpensive local diner type place, but parking took way too long. Jonathan ended up dropping us off in front of the diner while he went to find a place to park. Nancy, Will and I got a table, and then proceeded to take turns using the restroom, with at least one of us guarding the table meanwhile. Finally Jonathan came in, and we waved him over to our table.

“This menu’s like a novel,” Will commented, flipping through the numerous pages. “So many options!”

We ordered and got our food fairly quickly, Will settling on a cheeseburger, Nancy on a corned beef sandwich, Jonathan on a pastrami reuben, and I on a turkey wrap. The food was decent, nothing out of this world, but good enough. Jonathan and Nancy split the bill, Jonathan paying for Will and himself, and Nancy paying for me. Nancy insisted Jonathan not spend too much of his own money since he had already spent a lot buying us the tickets, gasoline, and parking.

Once we got out of the diner, Will and I really took in the skyscrapers around us for the first time.

“And you thought the mansion was huge!” I exclaimed as Will stared up at the buildings, dumbfounded.

“C’mon guys, we’re heading to the tallest one, the Sears Tower. We’re going all the way to the top,” Nancy announced, waving us along.

“The tallest one?” Will repeated.

“Yeah, it’s actually the tallest building in the world,” Jonathan informed us.

“Whoa…” Will mouthed. Going to the top of the tallest building in the world was the last thing either of us thought we’d be doing today.

It took a bit of navigating to find the tower, but Nancy and Jonathan brought a map, so we wouldn’t get lost. Finally, we made it. The four of us craned our necks up as we stood at the foot of the building. The steel and glass structure just kept going up and up. Jonathan took a high-angle snapshot of the building from where he was standing. I was grateful he had his camera with him, because I certainly didn’t have mine.

“What are we waiting for, let’s go inside!” Jonathan beckoned us to follow him in. We raced up to the glass doors and entered the lobby. There was a bit of a line to go up to the observation deck on the 103rd floor. We probably waited about twenty minutes before we were allowed to go inside the elevator. There was room for about ten people or so inside the elevator, and they certainly didn’t waste any of the available space, packing as many people as they could fit. Will and I were pressed up against each other, not that we really minded. I could see the anticipation on his face as we embarked on the longest elevator ride of our lives. As I grew impatient my foot tapped on the floor, though I tried to be quiet about it so I didn’t disturb everyone in the elevator.

The elevator doors opened. The indoor lobby was packed with people, and we funneled out into the crowd, though there was a little open space right at the elevator exit. A sign for “The Ledge” pointed straight ahead. Jonathan and Nancy led us toward it. The name sounded dramatic, like an amusement park ride. We went through the glass door at the end of the hall and stepped out onto the observation deck.

 _Holy shit_ , I thought as I took in the view for the first time. My mouth was agape. I had never been this high up before (except in an airplane).

“Robert! Look! They have glass boxes on the edges we can stand on!” Will pointed toward the edge of the deck in front of us.

“What? That’s insane!” I exclaimed. We went together to go stand on the glass and look out at the city.

“Wow, this is incredible!” Will said. “I’ve never seen anything like this. Everything looks so small from up here.”

“It really does,” I smiled in agreement.

“If only El could see us now.”

“She could if she wanted to,” I reminded him. All it would take is a picture of us, a blindfold and some TV static, and El would be able to see us on top of the Sears Tower through the Void.

“If you look out there, you can see past Lake Michigan all the way to Indiana,” Jonathan approached the ledge on Will’s left and pointed out the direction he wanted us to look. I was standing to the right of Will.

“Can we see Hawkins from here?” I asked.

“No, that’s a little bit too far out,” he shook his head.

“It’s still really cool we can see all the way back to Indiana,” I said. A moment of silence passed as we continued to gaze out at the view. “Thanks for taking us here, Jonathan. This is definitely the coolest place I’ve ever been!”

Jonathan smiled. “Of course. I thought you might like this. Do you and Will want a picture?”

“Uh, yes we want a picture!” Will butted into our conversation. He put his arm around me, beaming as we stood by the glass ledge. I loved how Will was so photogenic and eager to take pictures. Mike was basically the opposite, though I was sure he’d be more photogenic if his heart was in it. I turned away from the cityscape and back toward the lobby as Jonathan and Nancy took a few steps back. Jonathan held his Pentax camera up to his eye.

“Smile.”

Will and I smiled, our arms around each other’s backs and the awesome view of Chicago and beyond behind us.

Jonathan snapped a couple of shots. “That’s a keeper,” he assured us. “Let’s get one where you’re both sitting down on the glass floor looking down at the city below.”

Will and I did as we were instructed. We sat on the floor, our legs curled with our knees up in the air and feet planted on the floor. Jonathan stepped closer to us, framing us from above.

“You want us to look up at you or look down below?” I asked him.

“We can do both,” Jonathan said.

Jonathan took both versions. Will and I stood up once he was done.

“Do you want me to take some of you and Nancy?” I asked.

“Sure, that’d be great,” he said. Nancy and Jonathan posed by the ledge, their arms around each other in a more obviously romantic way. I took a couple to make sure they got a good one.

“Do you want to do the sitting on the floor one?” I asked, trying to make sure they got everything they might have wanted.

“No, that’s alright,” Nancy said. “Thanks so much, Robert.”

“Yeah, gotta say, it’s nice having a second photographer around,” Jonathan said as I handed his camera back to him.

A blonde woman in her early thirties walked up to us with a pleasant expression. “Hey, did you want a picture of all four of you? My husband and I were looking for someone to take our picture too, and you look like you know what you’re doing,” she offered.

“Yes, we’d love that,” Nancy agreed. “Thank you.”

Jonathan handed her his camera, and the four of us posed at the ledge. From camera side, left to right it was me, Will, Jonathan, and Nancy.

“Smile,” she encouraged. She took the picture. “Looks great. Ok can you get one with my husband and me?”

“Sure,” Jonathan said as she handed him back his camera. Her husband approached Jonathan and handed him his camera. She and her husband posed in the same spot we had been in. He was tall, but a little broad with big rimmed glasses and dark hair.

“One, two, three,” Jonathan said before pressing the shutter button. He took a few just in case. Ok, here you go,” Jonathan handed them their camera back.

“Thanks so much,” the couple said.

“No problem,” Jonathan replied.

Once we were done with all that photoshoot stuff, we stayed on the observation deck for another fifteen minutes or so, walking around to other sections to really take in all the different viewing angles.

“So how’s this day holding up to yesterday so far?” I asked Will. Jonathan and Nancy were off by themselves on another part of the deck.

“It’s more extreme, that’s for sure,” Will acknowledged. “I never expected we’d be standing here on top of the tallest building in the world. Suddenly all our drama back home seems so small and inconsequential.”

I chuckled lightly. “It’s nice to get away from it all, isn’t it?”

Will nodded. “I almost don’t want to go home.”

“Almost? I definitely don’t want to go home! Let’s just live here! The views are incredible and there’s way more to do!"

He laughed. “That’s the dream…”

Jonathan and Nancy found us and told us it was time to leave. We followed them back inside so we could take the elevator back down to the ground floor.

______________________________________________________________________________

It was now the evening. We moved the car closer to the venue after we had explored more of the city. After we left the Sears Tower, we had gone to the Art Institute of Chicago, which was one of the largest and oldest museums in the country. Will was particularly infatuated with the museum because of his love of fine art. We spent a good two hours there, not leaving us much time before the concert. We grabbed dinner at an eatery in the museum before leaving and heading for the Bismarck Theatre. It wasn’t anything fancy, but it wasn’t like we had the cash to fork up for a fancy dinner anyway.

When we arrived at the theatre, there was a long line formed at the entrance. The doors opened only a few minutes after we arrived. It took us about ten minutes to get inside once the line started moving. As we entered the lobby of the theatre, we were all amazed with the posh Versailles and Fountainebleau-inspired architecture and decor. Will and I spotted the merchandise booth and begged Jonathan to get us New Order tour t-shirts. He made us contribute our own cash but agreed to pay half. Will and I took Jonathan’s and our combined cash and got ourselves matching black New Order t-shirts.

Finally, we all went inside the theatre itself to find a place to stand for the concert. We found a spot a bit on the left side. The crowd was already pretty formed so we found ourselves somewhere between the middle and back of the floor section.

This was Will’s and my first real concert. We had seen some local stuff in Hawkins but nothing even close to this.

“The anticipation is killing me!” I shouted to Will, even though he was right next to me. The theatre was filled with loud chatter, laughing, and random cheers. There was a full bar inside so a lot of the older crowd was intoxicated as well.

“Me too!” he shouted back. “This is so exciting!”

Behind us, Nancy and Jonathan looked fondly on us chatting with each other. “They look like they’re having fun,” Nancy observed.

“Yeah,” Jonathan sighed.

“Something wrong?” Nancy tilted her head.

“No! Of course not. It’s just... I’m not sure I’ve ever seen Will this happy before. We both know he’s been through so much. And with all that drama with his friends back home, it’s just really nice to see he can still be this happy.”

“Well, that was the point of all this, right?”

Jonathan nodded.

“Robert clearly means everything to him,” Nancy said, turning her gaze back toward Will and me.

“I’m worried…” Jonathan admitted, “… about how high school is going to treat them. Will told me they’re going to hide their relationship from everyone while they’re in school, but we both know how well hiding our feelings for each other from Steve worked out.”

“This is different. They both know what’s at stake. They know how much of a shithole Hawkins is.”

“Think about it though. Four years of hiding and feeling different like there’s something wrong with them. I don’t think it can last. Sooner or later, one of them or both of them are going to want to stop hiding. But even if it lasts a whole year, we’re not going to be around to protect them after that. That’s what scares me,” Jonathan admitted.

“If I know my brother, I know he’ll never stop fighting for them. And El’s abilities are always a last resort.”

“No, she shouldn’t risk her own safety for that. She made a promise.”

“If it’s life or death for them, she will,” Nancy maintained.

“Let’s hope it never comes to that,” Jonathan said.

The house lights went dark. The theatre erupted in applause and cheers as the curtains opened and the stage lights focused on the band, all at their positions on stage.

“It’s them! It’s actually them!” Will hollered.

We cheered as the frontman Bernard Sumner greeted the crowd and the synth beat of “State of the Nation” started up. Everyone around us started dancing. Will and I looked at each other gauging each other’s willingness to dance. I started bobbing my head up and down, waving my arms around and swaying side to side. Will followed suit. I looked behind me. Jonathan and Nancy were dancing together. I realized I wasn’t sure I’d ever seen Jonathan dance.

“Will, have you ever seen your brother dance?” I said in his ear, smiling.

“Yeah a couple of times. Never in public though,” he yelled back in my ear. “I know, it’s not typical Jonathan,” he chuckled.

I laughed.

The setlist continued along, Will and I having the time of our lives as we danced through all of it.

Eight songs into their setlist, one of my favorite New Order songs came up: “The Perfect Kiss.” I screamed so loud when I recognized the bongo drum introduction.

“Will, let’s dance!” I suggested.

“We’ve been dancing,” Will looked at me confused.

“No, silly, together,” I grabbed his hands.

Will looked around. “But people will see us.”

“No one’s going to care. Everyone’s here for the music,” I pointed out.

“Alright,” he consented. We starting dancing together, holding each other’s hands and waving our arms around. We pulled each other closer and away and closer again. As the song progressed, I could feel the electricity between us as we gazed into each other’s eyes and we moved as one, our bodies close together and our arms around each other. I started twirling him around under my arm.

“Better than the Snowball dance?” I asked him with a smirk.

“Duh!” Will grinned back before twirling around.

The song ended, and the band started playing the next one, titled “Face Up.” Suddenly I felt a tap on my right shoulder, and I knew it wasn’t Will because he was on my left.

“I couldn’t help but notice you two dancing.” A fit young man with long light brown hair kind of like Steve’s who also looked about Steve’s age approached us. I stiffened, and I saw that Will had a mortified look on his face, both of us scared he was going to berate or attack us. “I know love when I see it. You two are very lucky to have each other, especially at such a young age. Where you guys from?”

This guy wasn’t hostile after all. In fact, he was even being friendly. Will and I relaxed. “Hawkins, Indiana,” I replied a bit hesitantly.

“Never heard of it,” he said.

“It’s a small town,” Will clarified.

“Doesn’t sound like a good place to be gay,” he observed.

I shook my head. “It isn’t.”

“Well, it’s not so bad here in Chicago,” the young man said. “Sure maybe you get a funny look every now and then, but no one’s gonna beat you up if you walk with your boyfriend holding hands at night.”

“What about in school?” Will asked.

“I had a gay friend in high school. No one really bothered him because if they did, I’d knock their teeth out.” He held up a fist. “Still, people have more important things to worry about in high school, like grades or losing their virginities. I don’t pretend to know what your small town is like, but people here are pretty used to gays. If someone like David Bowie or Freddie Mercury can be so beloved, it can’t be that weird, right?”

We nodded. Jonathan, just noticing this stranger talking to us, approached him.

“Is there a problem?” Jonathan questioned the stranger, his shoulders squared. He was very defensive when it came to Will.

The stranger smiled innocently. “No, no problem. I was just telling them how much I admired their openness and honest expression of themselves.”

Jonathan gave him a funny look. His language was quite flowery for someone who looked not much older than he was. He leaned toward Will. “Is he bothering you guys?”

“No, he’s cool,” Will assured him.

“Are you his brother?” The young man asked Jonathan, pointing to Will.

“Yeah,” Jonathan replied cooly.

“You’re a good brother, bringing him and his boyfriend here,” he grinned.

“Thanks,” Jonathan said awkwardly, a bit confused at the stranger’s kind words. “Umm… I better get back to Nancy. I’ll catch up with you two later.” He walked away and back toward Nancy, who proceeded to grill him to figure out what just went down.

“I’m George by the way,” he said extending his hand out.

“Robert.”

“Will.”

He shook our hands. “Nice talking with you, Robert and Will. I’ll leave you to it. Enjoy the rest of the show.”

“Thanks. You too,” we waved him goodbye as George started to make his way through the crowd.

“Oh, one more thing,” George remembered, inching his way back toward us. “Don’t let those small-minded folk back home get to you. If you’re being true to yourselves, that’s all that matters. This world’s full of fakers, but the ones that call the bullshit like it is, the ones who say screw all that, those are the people who are remembered. Those are the Freddie Mercuries, the David Bowies of this world.”

George disappeared into the crowd. New Order started their next song “Temptation.”

I stared off into the crowd where I last saw George, lost in thought.

“Robert, you ok?” Will waved a hand in front of my face. I shook off my reverie.

“Will, we did it!”

Will looked perplexed, his eyebrows furrowed. “Huh?”

We got out of town and went somewhere where people don’t care what we are, just like you wished for the night of that sleepover!”

Will thought about what I said for a moment. He gasped. “Oh my god, you’re right. You’re right!” he smiled. He wrapped his arms around me in an embrace. “Would you be offended if I said today officially tops yesterday?”

“No, of course not! We literally stood on top of the tallest building in the world, went to a museum you’ve dreamed about going to and now we’re seeing one of our favorite bands live! It’s kind of hard to top that.”

“I still loved yesterday though. It was just us, which made it special in its own way.”

“Let’s stop comparing days. No more best days ever. It’s too much pressure. Every day is special with you, big or small.”

Overcome with happiness, Will kissed me on the lips. I closed my eyes as I melted into his kiss. It was the first time either of us had kissed each other in full view of other people. There was something intoxicatingly liberating about it.

Jonathan and Nancy smiled as they watched us kiss. No one else around us paid us any mind.

New Order finished their setlist and the curtains closed as screams for an encore filled the theatre. Will looked a little disappointed they didn’t play his favorite song, “Age of Consent.”

A minute or so passed of fans screaming, “Encore!” before the curtains opened again and the band members walked back out and picked up their instruments/set up their synthesizers.

We screamed in excitement, relieved the concert wasn’t over yet. The guitarist started playing the opening riff to “Age of Consent.”

Will’s face lit up like a Christmas tree. “YES! They’re playing it!” he squealed. We started jumping together as the drum beat came in, holding hands like we did earlier. This song was another of my favorites.

I turned around and saw Jonathan and Nancy making out. Blushing I quickly turned back around to Will, leaving them to it.

We belted out the lyrics as we jumped around and danced for the remainder of the song, Will even more jubilant than he already had been.

The crowd went wild as the song finished up, and a familiar synth drum beat started pulsing through the auditorium.

“Hell yes! Blue Monday!” I shouted to Will. This was my all-time favorite New Order song. The addictive club beat always got me moving.

We started doing the funkiest dances we could think of constantly trying to one up each other, everything from disco moves to the Egyptian to the Batusi (a dance invented for the 1960s Batman TV series where you wave horizontal V-signs with your fingers in front of your eyes while continuing to dance with the lower part of your body).

When I decided I had enough of that, I wrapped my arms around Will’s shoulders and prompted him to put his hands on my hips. He blushed at first, but shrugged it off because he realized after our kiss that no one cared what we did here. We pressed our heads together as we moved to the beat, both of us starting to sweat from how much we had been moving around and from the extra heat from wearing band t-shirts over our regular shirts.

The song finished, and New Order took another bow, leaving the stage, this time for good. The house lights came back on, prompting people to start shuffling out of the theatre.

My ears were ringing a bit, and everything sounded quieter than normal, like all the sounds were trapped in a box. Nancy explained that was normal after a concert and it would go away if not by the time we got home, tomorrow for sure.

We made our way out of the theatre and started heading toward the parking lot where Jonathan had moved his car before the show.

“That was awesome!” Will exclaimed as we stepped out onto the sidewalk outside. “Can we go to more concerts, Jonathan? Please?”

“We’ll see,” he laughed. “We’re both going to be busy with school soon. Maybe if someone comes to Indianapolis cause then it won’t be as much of a drive. And of course we would need the money.”

“Thank you, Jonathan. This was so much fun.” I hugged him. I think this might have been the first time I had ever hugged Will’s brother. I was more used to shaking his hand.

He hugged me back. “You’re welcome,” he smiled. “I’m glad you both enjoyed it.”

It was about a ten minute walk to the car. By the time we all piled inside, we were pretty drained. Will looked like he was about to fall asleep. We’ve both been so busy and active the past couple of days, so I could totally understand.

We pulled away from the parking lot and made our way out of the city, Nancy using the overhead light to look at the map and help Jonathan navigate back to the highway.  
______________________________________________________________________________

About half an hour into our drive home, Will was asleep sitting on the left side of the car and leaning against the passenger door. I was left awake while Jonathan and Nancy chatted, Nancy doing her best to make sure Jonathan didn’t fall asleep at the wheel, meaning she couldn’t sleep either.

Nancy turned around. “Robert, are you awake?”

“Yeah,” I said quietly, not wanting to wake Will up.

“Just checking,” she smiled before turning back toward the front windshield.

“Can I ask you something?”

She turned back to me. “Of course.”

“What would you do if you had a secret boyfriend and your boyfriend didn't want people to find out, but you were ok with people knowing, hypothetically speaking of course.”

Nancy stared at me for a moment. “Well, I can tell you when Steve and I were dating, I didn’t want everyone to know about it, especially not my mom, but of course the truth came out anyway. It always does, one way or another. So in your totally hypothetical situation, I think I would try to convince my boyfriend that since people will eventually find out about our relationship, we might as well not waste any energy trying to hide it.”

“What if your secret boyfriend was actually a secret girlfriend?”

Jonathan glanced over at Nancy, curious how she would answer that.

“Doesn’t change my answer,” she replied confidently.

My mouth was slightly agape and my eyebrows raised. “You wouldn’t be worried about any repercussions?”

“Of course I would be. But when you have someone you love that deeply by your side, the repercussions have a funny way of feeling trivial. But of course this is purely hypothetical, right?” Nancy gave me a quizzical look.

“Totally,” I nodded.

Nancy smirked before turning back toward the front of the car. Jonathan gave Nancy a knowing glance before looking back at the dark highway.

I stared fondly at Will, who was still asleep. I knew now I needed to try to convince him that we didn’t need to hide our relationship, and that we could face whatever came our way together and with the help of our friends. If George and that concert taught me anything, it was that maybe the world wasn’t quite as anti-gay as I thought it was.


	11. The Mixtape

Lucas’s knee bounced up and down as he sat at a table in the food court waiting for Max to arrive. He finally had a weekday afternoon to himself, free from the burden of football practice. He had just survived hell week the previous week, where they had practice twice a day. Lucas had never subjected himself to so much physical activity in his life. But he could see the changes to his body practice and weight training had rewarded him with when he stared at himself in the mirror. He felt stronger, his muscles bigger. And only in just a month’s time.

“Sorry I’m late,” the redhead apologized, pulling out one of the chairs and sitting down across from him at the table.

“No worries,” the dark-skinned boy smiled.

“You must be relieved, not having practice for once,” Max presumed.

“Yeah. Hell week was rough,” Lucas acknowledged. “I can’t believe school’s already starting tomorrow.”

“This summer went by so fast,” Max agreed.

“And your cross country tryouts are tomorrow after school. You must be excited for that.”

“It’s hardly tryouts if it’s not a cut sport,” Max chuckled.

“It’s a good thing we have biology and English together or we’d never see each other anymore outside of lunch!” Lucas exclaimed. “At least now we can study bio together in the evenings after practices.”

“Leave it to you to preemptively set up study dates,” Max joked, rolling her eyes.

Lucas laughed.

Max became serious. “I… uh…wanted to ask you something.”

Lucas raised an eyebrow. “Yes, Maxie?”

“Do you think you could maybe try to hang out with the rest of the party tomorrow? It’s the first day of high school. We should all be together.”

Lucas frowned. “I can’t… I can’t go back to the party.”

“C’mon, Lucas. It’s been almost a whole month. I know you still care about all of them. You don’t even have to talk to Mike.”

“Max, I’ve moved on. I have new friends now on the team. You know that. Besides, it’s not like the party would welcome me back with open arms.”

“They might if you apologized,” Max suggested.

“We’ve been over this. I’m not apologizing,” Lucas maintained.

Max sighed. There was no convincing him. One Lucas had his mind made up, it he wouldn’t budge, unless something astronomical happened, like when El flipped the Hawkins Lab van over two years ago.

“How is everyone?” Lucas wondered. He hadn’t really had much time to think about the party members he didn’t see regularly. He had only kept in contact with Max and Dustin for the past month.

“Getting by,” Max replied. “El’s going out for tennis. Her tryouts are tomorrow. Robert and Will went to Chicago recently for a concert. Mike’s been busy prepping El for school.”

“Is she ready…for school I mean?”

“Is one ever truly ready for such a life changing event like that? How do you prepare for the clusterfuck that is school when you’ve never had any experience like it for the first fourteen years of your life? It’s hard to say. Mike thinks she’ll be just fine, and El seems rather confident too. I’m just sitting here hoping she doesn’t land herself in detention for speaking out of turn. I guess we’ll find out soon enough.”

“Should I expect you at our lunch table tomorrow?” Lucas asked.

“I might stop by for a bit, but I really want to make sure El’s getting along ok. And as I said, I think the party should at least be together for the first day,” she emphasized.

Lucas nodded silently. He understood that Max was torn between him and the party and needed to balance both. This was just something he had to live with if he still wanted to date her, which he did. Sure there were plenty of other pretty girls in his grade, but none of them were Max. None of them had encountered demodogs on a foggy November night in a junked school bus or travelled into the depths of his mind to rescue him from the shadow man. None of them were as tenacious, sharp-witted, and beautiful as her. Not in his eyes.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“C’mon Mike, tell me how I can get out of this catatonic spell.”

Dustin’s eyes were on Mike as he waited for an answer. The pair were on the sofa in the Wheeler’s basement.

“Someone else has to free you. You can’t do it yourself. That’s how the spell works,” Mike explained.

“When are we going to resume the campaign? It’s been a month and I’m dying to know what happens next.”

“We can’t play without Lucas. It wouldn’t seem right,” Mike said.

“So never?”

“Don’t say that!” Mike snapped.

“Well, I’m pretty sure he’s done with the party, so why don’t you just write him out of the campaign.”

“I… I can’t do that,” Mike stuttered.

“Why not?” Dustin questioned him.

“I just can’t, ok?” Mike seethed. “Look, if you really want to play, I’ll make a new campaign. Something smaller scale.”

A lightbulb went on in Dustin’s head. “You want him to change his mind, don’t you?” he prodded.

Mike’s face flushed. “No, I don’t,” his voice cracked a bit. “He made his choice.”

“Friends don’t lie,” Dustin reminded him.

Mike sighed. “So what if I do? It’s not like it really matters anyway. He’s not coming back,” he grumbled.

“Believe me, Mike, we all want him back. I’ve tried to convince him a few times this past month, but you know how he gets.”

“How is he?” Mike asked.

“Buffer,” Dustin joked.

Mike snorted. “Lucas the jock, who would have thought. I guess that’s not as weird as Dustin the merman.”

“Merman? Just because half of my day is spent in the pool…oh, I see your point,” Dustin smirked, accepting his new nickname. “You better write me as a merman with aquatic powers in the next campaign, Mike or I’ll walk out of the next D & D session,” he threatened.

Mike laughed. “Sure thing! Robert will love that your new nickname is catching on.”

“He came up with that?”

“Yup.”

“Kudos to him,” Dustin said. He thought to himself for a moment. “So where are we meeting tomorrow morning, new campus and all?”

“The bike racks? Easy for everyone to remember,” Mike suggested.

“Some things never change,” Dustin remarked. We all would meet up at the bike racks at Hawkins Middle School every morning. When Will started getting dropped off instead of biking, he would still head over to the racks to meet up with the rest of us, unless Jonathan or Joyce were running late, then he’d go right to class.

“Will’s going to start biking to school again,” Mike informed Dustin.

“Aww, our little boy is growing up,” Dustin said using a cutesy voice.

“Shut up, he’s taller than you now,” Mike playfully shoved Dustin.

“What about El?”

“I think she’s going to be dropped off by Hopper. It’s a long bike ride for her from their cabin, even though she’s been getting better since the beginning of the summer.”

“Aww, El is learning to ride a two-wheeler,” Dustin mocked with the same cutesy voice.

“Shut the hell up, Henderson!” Mike shoved him again. They laughed.  
______________________________________________________________________________

El stared at Hopper across their kitchen table as he bit into his chicken drumstick. It was starting to get dark out, and the cabin was lit up with the orange glow of lamps and other fixtures.

“Eat your chicken, it’s going to get cold,” Hopper instructed her while chewing.

“I like it fried better,” El protested, looking down at her full plate.

Hopper swallowed the food in his mouth. “Fried isn’t as good for you. You know we’re trying to eat healthier.”

“Mike would let me eat it fried.”

“Mike’s not your father. If you want eat that junk with him out of this house and on his money, fine, but in here, we eat healthy,” Hopper maintained.

El said nothing, taking a forkful of chicken breast and tasting it. She proceeded to salt the rest of her chicken. She shook the salt dispenser again and again, a clump of salt forming on top of her chicken.

“That’s enough salt, Jane.”

El put the shaker down. A year ago, she would have ignored him and continued shaking the salt, using her powers to prevent Hopper from stopping her. But El knew better than that now.

“So school tomorrow, huh? You excited? It’s your first day.” Hopper asked.

“Yeah, it should be fun,” El smiled lightly.

“If I were you, I’d be pretty nervous.”

“Why would you be nervous?” El looked at Hopper quizzically.

“All those classes, having to sit there and be quiet the whole time, lots of unfamiliar faces, tests, quizzes, social drama…” Hopper went on.

“Mike’s going to help me through it. It can’t be all that bad if my friends do it all the time,” El surmised.

“They do it because the law says so. That’s why you have to go to school too.” Hopper paused for a moment. “What’s going on with your friends recently? Did Lucas ever rejoin you guys?”

El frowned. “No.”

Hopper looked at El, his eyes saddened. “That’s a shame. You think he’d be a little more grateful to the people that rescued him out of that mansion. I can’t say I disagree with him worrying about Robert and Will being queer, but he shouldn’t have treated them the way he did either.”

El stayed quiet as she picked at her broccoli. This wasn’t a conversation she wanted to have, not after the first time when she had sobbed upon finding out Lucas had officially kicked himself out of the party via a phone call from Max. No matter how many times Mike, Max or Hopper tried to explain things to her, she didn’t understand why things had to be the way they were. But enough time had passed now that she had been starting to accept Lucas’s absence.

“Your tennis tryouts are tomorrow too, right?”

El nodded.

“I know you’ve been really practicing your tennis all summer, but even if you don’t make the team, I want you to know I’ll still be proud of you.”

El smiled. “Nancy says I have nothing to worry about.”

“It’s going to be quite a challenge balancing school and the tennis team. I won’t blame you if it becomes too much, and you decide you want to quit the team.”

“I’ll make it work,” El assured him. She had really grown to enjoy the sport, and she knew she needed something to do after school to keep herself busy so she wouldn’t feel left out since everyone else was doing sports or some other activity. She had briefly considered joining Will in AV Club, but working with radios reminded her of the Void a little too much, and she worried her powers would slip out. Of course she worried they would slip out playing tennis too, but so far nothing had happened other than saving Mike from getting hit in the head when he had been distracted by me entering the courts.

El didn’t really want to admit it, but she was a little nervous about starting school for the first time. She worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up with everyone else intellectually. Mike had been tutoring her all summer to try to catch her up to ninth grade levels of reading comprehension, math, and science, as well as knowledge of world and US history. It was a lot for Mike to take on, but he prided himself in helping El any way he could, and he was one of the smartest kids I knew. His level of patience with El was also unparalleled out of anyone in the party. Additionally, all the movies El had watched about high school hadn’t made her very excited about the cliques and bullies that were all too common on high school campuses. The worst part was she couldn’t use her powers to help alleviate some of those issues. Ultimately what made her confident was her faith in Mike and the rest of us to help her through her first school experience.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Over the past couple of weeks, I had spent my spare time creating a mixtape for Will. After the concert, I realized how important music has been in drawing Will and me closer together over the years. In my mind, it was a perfect gift for him, because it had that personal touch that his portrait of me had, as well as having a similar amount of the time and effort he spent drawing it. In my case, the time was spent curating tracks and ripping them from the records onto a tape. Being the procrastinator that I was, I had just finished creating it this afternoon, but rather than waiting to give it to him in school tomorrow, I decided it couldn’t wait.

My mom had another late dinner meeting, so I made myself a frozen dinner and headed over to the Byers residence for a quick visit. I couldn’t stay too long because it was a school night and I didn’t want to not be home when she got home. After hopping off my bike, I knocked on the Byers’ door.

Jonathan answered it. “Oh hey, Robert. We’re just finishing up dinner. Wanna join us?”

“Sure,” I replied. Jonathan led me down the hall into the kitchen. I was met with the cheery faces of Will and Joyce Byers.

“Your mom working late again?” Joyce asked.

“Yeah,” I replied.

“I know how that goes,” she said, thinking about her late shifts that she used to take on at Melvald’s.

“There’s still some potatoes and veggies left if you’re hungry,” she offered.

“That’s alright. I already ate. Thanks though.”

“Can we be excused?” Will asked, gesturing to me and himself.

“Sure, but remember it’s a school night. I’m sure Robert has to get home pretty soon, or his mom will worry about him,” Joyce warned.

Will led me out of the kitchen and to his bedroom. He closed the door behind him.

“So, uh, what brings you over?” Will asked casually.

“I missed your pretty face,” I smirked. “Haven’t seen it all day.”

Will laughed. “It has been a long day without you.”

“I’m sorry, I was too busy finishing up this,” I took the mixtape, which was in a cassette case, out of my pocket and handed it to Will.

“What is it?” He took it from me and opened the cassette case, spotting the label I scribbled on the top: _Will’s Mixtape_. His eyes lit up in excitement. “A mixtape?!” He pored over the track list I had written out on a piece of lined paper folded carefully inside the cassette case.

1\. The Power of Love - Huey Lewis & The News  
2\. Age of Consent - New Order  
3\. Should I Stay or Should I Go - The Clash  
4\. The Ghost in You - The Psychedelic Furs  
5\. Radio Gaga - Queen  
6\. Head Over Heels - Tears for Fears  
7\. Tainted Love / Where Did Our Love Go? - Soft Cell  
8\. Love Will Tear Us Apart - Joy Division  
9\. Take On Me - aha  
10\. Whip It - Devo  
11\. Don’t You (Forget About Me) - Simple Minds  
12\. Heroes -David Bowie

“I hope the track list is ok,” I mumbled.

Will looked up at me. “Ok? It’s perfect! It’s got like all our songs on it and then some!”

I smiled, relieved he was happy with it.

“Thank you, Robert. This means a lot to me.” He gave me a peck on the lips.

“I’m glad you like it,” I beamed, my cheeks rosy from his kiss.

He put the mixtape down on his desk.

“There’s another reason I came over,” I admitted.

“Will’s Mixtape Volume 2?” Will joked.

I chuckled lightly. “Dream on.” I inhaled deeply and slowly exhaled. “Ever since the concert, that guy George got me thinking: maybe everyone isn’t so out to get people like us. Maybe no one will really care that much that we’re together.”

Will’s expression suddenly became dead serious. “What are you talking about?”

“I think we should reconsider whether hiding our relationship in school is a good idea,” I proposed.

“Are you crazy?” Will stared at me incredulously. “We can’t even put sunscreen on each other’s backs at the pool without people making fun of us.”

“You mean to tell me you weren’t even slightly moved by George’s advice?”

“Chicago is not Hawkins, Robert,” Will stressed.

“It’s not just George though. Nancy said if she was in a relationship like ours she wouldn’t waste energy trying to hide it because people would eventually find out anyway.”

“People aren’t going to find out unless we give them reason to, which we’re not going to do.”

“We have friends and family that will protect us, and we have each other. We can deal with whatever comes our way. Why can’t you at least consider it?

Will bristled. “Because it’s not safe! Because I don’t want high school to be a living hell for us!” I recoiled from his outburst. He paused for a moment to compose himself. “I’m not backing down, Robert. You need to respect that I don’t want our relationship out in the open or this can’t work.”

My heart sank. Will was not going to relent. “Ok.”

“Ok what?” Will glared at me.

“I respect that you don’t want our relationship out in the open,” I conceded.

Will’s expression softened again. He grabbed my hands. “Don’t worry. We’ll get through it. We just have to act the same as we always have in school. How hard can it be when we’re already so good at it?”

 _That was before we knew we liked each other_ , I thought to myself. I flashed a small smile to reassure him, even though I firmly believed it was going to be much harder now that we were together.

I looked at my watch. “I better go. It’s getting late, and I have to get home before my mom does.”

“See you tomorrow morning at the bike racks?”

“Yeah, see you there.” I left his room in a hurry without giving him any affection and shouted bye to Jonathan and Joyce before leaving their house. I hopped back on my bike and headed home, racing to make sure my mom wouldn’t beat me there.

As disappointed as I was, I guess I probably should have expected this outcome, considering how he’s acted all summer when we’ve been in public. Will didn’t see the decision to hide as a choice but as a matter of fact. I wondered if he’d feel the same way if the sleepover fiasco hadn’t happened. If the whole party was united and behind us, maybe he’d feel more emboldened. But that was not the reality we lived in now. For him, if our relationship could mess up the party, it certainly couldn’t spell anything good for everyone else to know about it. For now, I’d have to live with hiding it and hoping maybe Will would eventually grow tired of hiding it too. I was not ready to drop this point of contention, but decided I would give it some time.

When I arrived at my house and was putting my bike on the side of the house, I heard my mom pull into the driveway. Panicking, I snuck around to the back door, unlocked it, and raced inside, trying to figure out where to be and what to be doing when she walked in. I settled for watching TV in the living room. I threw my shoes haphazardly toward the doorway where we usually left our shoes. I jumped onto the sofa and flipped the remote to MTV. My mom walked in through the front door right as I settled in.

“How many times have I told you…”

 _Oh shit, how did she know?_ I thought, feeling a sense of dread.

“…not to leave your shoes laying around the hallway. Someone could trip.” She waved my Nike sneakers in the air in front of me.

“Sorry, Mom,” I apologized. _Whew!_

“TV better be off by 9. It’s a school night.”

“Ok.”

She put my sneakers more neatly off to the side next to her shoes and left the room, heading into the kitchen to make a cup of tea.

I breathed a sigh of relief as I stared at the music video for Madonna’s song “Like A Virgin” playing on the television. After it concluded, I turned off the TV and went upstairs to my room. I knew I needed to get a good night sleep. Tomorrow was going to be an interesting day, that was for sure.


	12. The First Day, Part I

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's so much going on this first day of high school for the party that I had to split this chapter into two parts!

Ugh. It was too early. I stumbled out of bed around 7am and hopped in the shower. Afterward as I dried my hair in the bathroom, I stared at myself in the mirror. I never did get that haircut I had been thinking about. My hair was starting to get long to the point it was curling at the ends in the back. I finished getting dressed, packed my running clothes and shoes in my already heavy backpack and went downstairs to grab a quick breakfast of toast with jam and some fruit before I left for my first day of high school. I could hardly believe the best summer of my life was over and this day was finally here. It went by so fast.

Hawkins High School was right next door to Hawkins Middle School, so the route from home was the same. Mike and Dustin were waiting by the bike racks just as we all agreed upon when I arrived at school around 8:00am. School started in half an hour.

“Hey, Robert!” Dustin greeted me as I parked and locked my bike.

“Dustin, it’s been a while,” I smiled back. “I thought maybe you’d decided to live out the rest of your days in the quarry.”

“Haha laugh it up. Any more swimming jokes you want to get out, get 'em out now,” Dustin said.

“I think I’m good, merman,” I smirked.

“I’m owning that name now by the way,” Dustin retorted.

I turned to Mike who hadn’t really said anything other than hello since I arrived. “You’re awfully quiet.”

“Just letting you two catch up,” Mike replied, his eyes on the drop off curb.

“Waiting for El, huh?” I asked.

“I hope she’s not late,” Mike worried.

“C’mon, Hopper wouldn’t let her be late on her first day,” Dustin comforted him.

“He’s late for his own job sometimes,” Mike reminded him.

“He’s in charge, it hardly matters,” Dustin replied.

“It’s still pretty early,” I said.

Max was the next to show up. She parked her bike across from mine.

“Sup, guys?”

“What, you’re not skating to school?” Dustin asked.

“What, you’re not swimming to school?” Max sneered back.

I giggled. Max had come to the rescue with more swim jokes. Even Mike let out a chuckle. Dustin’s mouth was agape as he tried to find a witty retort but the words wouldn’t come to him. He really walked right into that one.

“My skateboard doesn’t fit in my locker. And no way I’m riding with Billy to school anymore,” Max justified her new transportation method.

We nodded, acknowledging her resentment of Billy’s reckless driving habits.

“So, uh you and Will up for this? The whole hiding thing?” Max asked me.

I frowned and stared off toward the drop off curb, thinking about Will’s vehement shutdown of my suggestion to not hide it.

“What’s wrong?” Max asked. I looked back and saw the three of them staring at me, curious.

“I uh… we had a little argument about it yesterday, but we’re ok now, I think.” I stopped talking, but they just continued to look at me like they were waiting for more.

“What are you waiting for? Spill the deets!” Dustin urged me.

“If he doesn’t want to talk about it, he doesn’t have to,” Mike defended me.

“I tried suggesting to him that we not bother hiding our relationship, but he wouldn’t bite. I’m just worried how we’re going to be able to keep this charade up," I admitted.

“That’s what I was thinking. It’s not fair for you two to have to put that pressure on yourselves,” Mike said. “But _someone_ here thought otherwise,” he glared at Dustin.

“Hey! I never said it was fair! I care just as much as you do about their well being. Do you really think they’re going to be better off if everyone knows about them and bullies them into the ground? How’s _that_ going to affect them emotionally?”

“Let’s not do this again, please?” Max stood between them. “It’s the first day of high school. Don’t ruin it.”

Mike and Dustin nodded silently, agreeing to drop this argument. If only it were that easy for Mike and Lucas to do the same.

Around 8:15am, I saw Will in the distance, making his way over to the bike racks.

“Hey guys!” Will waved as he walked his bike over to us.

“Hey Will!” Mike grinned as Will parked his bike next to Max’s.

“Nice to see you biking to school again,” I beamed.

“Yeah, it was a little weird, but refreshing,” he flashed a smile at me as he approached us. I waited for one of his customary hugs, but it never came. He just settled next to me, keeping a healthy separation. I frowned a bit in disappointment. Of course I should have known better than to expect that here. Then again I also didn’t hug him before leaving last night. “Where’s El?” Will asked, looking around.

“Hopper hasn’t dropped her off yet,” Mike sighed.

“I’m sure she’ll be here any minute,” Max tried to reassure him.

From across the parking lot, I spotted a group of jocks walking toward the school building. To my surprise, Lucas was among them. He looked a bit more toned than the last time I saw him, a month ago.

“Oh look, it’s Lucas,” I said unenthusiastically. Everyone looked over at him.

As their group got closer to us, Lucas noticed us staring and looked back at us knowingly. He didn’t wave or smile. God, this was awkward.

Max waved at him. Lucas waved back at his girlfriend briefly, and then turned away just as quickly.

Will looked puzzled. “That guy next to him… he looks familiar.” He pointed toward a boy who was taller and more muscular than Lucas with tan skin and short dirty blonde locks. He was wearing a pair of slim but not skinny light blue jeans and a plain gray t-shirt that hugged his arms and torso. He looked a little older than us as well.

“The blonde guy? That’s Todd. He’s a sophomore and the quarterback of the JV football team,” Dustin revealed.

I stared at Todd for a moment before realizing to my horror why Will thought he was familiar. I turned to Will. “He was there… at the pool.”

Will’s face contorted into a grimace.

“What are you talking about?” Max looked confused.

“Some older high school boys made fun of us for applying sunscreen to each other’s backs at the Hawkins Pool,” Will explained. "And Todd was in their group." 

“Freaking mouthbreathers,” Mike grumbled.

Max frowned. “Well, that’s just great. Now I’m gonna have to talk to Lucas and tell him to tell his friends to lay off you two.”

“No, don’t do that,” Will begged. “That’ll only draw more attention to us. We know better now.”

“He needs to at least be aware of it. I’ll leave it up to him to talk to them or not,” Max compromised.

I nodded in agreement with Max and looked at Will with begging eyes.

“He’s like a spy on the inside,” Max said. “He still cares about you both even if it doesn’t seem like it.”

Will sighed, giving her permission to tell her boyfriend.

Lucas and his football friends entered the building, leaving our field of view.

Finally Hopper’s police Chevy Blazer pulled up to the curb. After a few moments El stepped out and waved to Hopper. Hopper drove away as El spotted us by the bike racks and waved. She had her tennis racket handle sticking out the top of her backpack. We made our way over to her, since she was closer to the main building and we had to get to class pretty soon. We had about ten minutes or so left before the bell rang.

“You made it!” Mike hugged El immediately. El wrapped her arms around him in return.

“Yes,” El acknowledged.

“You know where your first class is?”

“Room 103. English.”

“Come. I’ll walk you. We’ll deal with your locker later. You don’t have to carry that racket and all your textbooks around all day, but there’s no time right now.” He quickly led El away into the building, leaving the rest of us behind.

“Dustin, what class do you have right now?” I wondered.

“Honors Biology with Chung.”

“Wait, so do I. We’re all in the same class then,” I discovered. I already knew Max, Will and I all had bio together first period, and apparently so did Lucas, which could either be really awkward or just whatever. Of course Max was happy about it.

“Ay! It’ll be like old times in Mr. Clarke’s class,” Dustin grinned.

“Just without Mike,” Will reminded him.

“He has the same class fourth period,” Dustin informed us.

“So sad. Mike all alone in bio,” Max jokingly moped.

We laughed as we walked inside the school building and headed straight to our first high school class.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Our biology classroom had various posters of cell structure, the earth’s different climate types and human anatomy. You couldn’t look anywhere without seeing something of biological interest. The teacher’s desk at the front of the room had a plaque labeled “Jen Chung” that was surrounded by stacks of papers, small picture frames, a coffee mug and various pens and pencils. Instead of traditional desks, we sat on stools at counters that were designed for lab use. There was a message on the chalk board instructing us to make name cards with our first and last names for the teacher to get to know us.

Will was sitting to my right and Dustin to my left. Max was right behind me and Lucas was next to her and behind Dustin. None of Lucas’s new friends I saw earlier seemed to be in this class.

Ms. Jen Chung was fairly young, probably in her early to mid thirties. She had long dark brown almost black hair that was straight and pulled behind her ears which were adorned with pearl earrings. She wore a red floral sundress and sandals. Ms. Chung was currently going over the syllabus, which laid out rules such as how grading for the class worked, and also gave an overview of what we’d be covering throughout the school year. We all had copies in front of us as she read it over. I looked around the class. A few people were paying close attention, but most of us had tuned out since nothing she was saying was anything that we couldn’t read later ourselves. I looked over at Will who looked just as bored as I was. Deciding to pass the time with a little fun, I carefully ripped a piece of paper from my spiral notebook and scribbled a note. I folded it in half and discreetly passed it to my right for Will to read.

Will gave me a confused look but picked up the note and unfolded it.

 _Mr. Clarke is way cooler than Ms. Chung,_ it read.

Will snorted and put his hand up to his mouth to contain further laughter.

“Mr. Byers!” Ms. Chung’s eyes darted to Will, interrupting her own discussion of the topics we were covering after winter break, mostly involving macro-biology. “Would you like to share with the class what’s so funny?”

Everyone was staring at Will. Alarmed, he shook his head. “It’s nothing.”

“That’s a note in front of you, is it not? Please do share it with the class, or I’ll write you a detention slip.”

Will sighed. “Mr. Clarke is way cooler than Ms. Chung,” he read off my note.

Some classmates snickered. Lucas facepalmed and shook his head. Dustin let out a giggle and Max and I snorted.

Ms. Chung had an eerie sense of calmness for someone who was just insulted in front of all her students on the first day of class.

“How many of you had Mr. Clarke at Hawkins Middle School?” she asked everyone.

Almost the whole class of about 25 people raised their hands other than like 5 or 6 people.

“What did you like about him?”

Dustin’s hand darted up in the air.

“Yes, Mr. Henderson?”

“He was always enthusiastic about science and had a deep sense of commitment to helping out his students in any way he could, even when it wasn’t necessarily convenient. He made science fun,” Dustin replied.

“Anyone else?” She looked around the room. No one else had the courage to raise their hand.

“Well I’m glad many of you enjoyed my fiancé’s class,” she said with a smirk waving her engagement ring clad hand in front of us. “

 _Fiancé? Damn, I was definitely not expecting_ that. I gasped silently as a chorus of oohs filled the room. I looked around and saw the other party member’s astonished faces.

“All right, settle down. Settle down. Because you best be ready to embark on this curiosity voyage,” she winked.

Dustin had a gleeful look on his face, as he realized this class would be just as fun as Mr. Clarke’s. I gave Will a sheepish grin, as I felt a little guilty about getting him in trouble. He returned my smile before we both turned our attention back to Ms. Chung.

“I hope you’ve all learned now that I will not tolerate note passing in my classroom. I expect nothing but your full attention and commitment to the learning process.” She paused for a moment. “You can read the rest of the syllabus at home. Let’s go ahead and start our first lecture on cells.” Ms. Chung stepped toward the blackboard, took a piece of chalk and drew a large circle and a smaller one inside of it, resembling a cell and its nucleus. “The cell is the basic structural, functional, and biological unit of all living organisms…”  
______________________________________________________________________________

El picked a desk closer to the back of her English classroom. She liked being able to see everyone in the room and also not be too noticeable herself. She didn’t know anyone else in the class.

She took out her composition notebook and a pencil as well as her grammar textbook. Mike had told her she needed to have these items with her every class.

“Hey, you look familiar,” a pretty girl with blonde hair addressed El. The girl was sitting next to El on her left. “Do I know you?”

El stared at her for a moment, before recognizing her. “You’re Jennifer Hayes?” Will had pointed her out to El in the eighth grade yearbook a few months ago.

“Yeah, that’s me. You were at the Snowball last winter, right? Dancing with Mike Wheeler?” Jennifer asked. “I barely recognized you with longer hair now.”

“Yes. And you were dancing with Will,” El recalled.

“Yup, Will Byers,” Jennifer beamed. “I’ve never seen you at school. Were you homeschooled before?”

“Homeschooled?” El looked confused.

“Yeah, like your parents teach you at home instead of going to school. I know there’s a few families in town that prefer to do that, but it’s not very common,” Jennifer explained.

“Yes. I think so,” El surmised. She wasn’t entirely sure if Mike tutoring her or Hopper giving her words of the day qualified, but she wasn’t about to go into detail with this girl she barely knew.

Jennifer gave her a funny look, but shrugged it off. “What’s your name?”

“Jane. Jane Hopper.”

Jennifer cocked her head in confusion. “You’re the police chief’s daughter? I didn’t know he had one.”

El nodded.

“So you and Mike? Are you dating?” she inquired.

“Yes,” El smiled.

“Aww, that’s adorable,” Jennifer remarked sincerely. “You two were really cute at the dance.” She paused for a moment. “Say, do you know if Will’s dating anyone?” she asked with a twinkle in her eager cerulean eyes.

Her innocent question posed a moral dilemma for El. She knew she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone about Will and me being together but she didn’t want to lie to her new acquaintance either. El thought back to the time she lied to us about the compass we were using to search for Will in the woods. She had meddled with the compass to prevent us from reaching Hawkins Lab because she knew it was too dangerous. A lie designed to protect us. Using that reasoning, El settled for lying to Jennifer to protect us. She didn’t feel good about it, but she knew it was the best decision she could make. “No, he’s not dating anyone,” El answered.

“Oh. Good to know. Thanks,” she smiled, seeming relieved. El smiled back nervously in acknowledgement. Before the conversation between the girls could continue, the teacher Mrs. Wilson addressed the class. A hush fell over all the students as they listened to her introduce the course. She told everyone to take out their composition notebooks and a pencil or pen and put everything else away.

“Your first assignment is to write a two to three page essay on what you did this summer and what you learned from it. You have twenty minutes, beginning now,” Mrs. Wilson announced.

Some students started writing immediately, including Jennifer. Others tapped their pens or pencils as they thought of what to write. El was completely lost as she stared at the blank lined paper in her open composition notebook. She had never written an essay before. Mike had prepared her for a lot of things, but writing an essay on the fly was not one of them. A bead of sweat dripped from her forehead. She wiped it away, trying to think about what she could possibly write about. The most interesting thing that happened this summer was the incident at the mansion, but she knew she couldn’t write about that. No one was allowed to know about the Upside Down. Even if she did write about it, her teacher would think it was some elaborate fiction and grade her down for it. Other than defeating the shadow man, the only other interesting thing she had done this summer was learn how to play tennis. Could she really write two to three pages about that?

El stared at the clock on the wall. Five minutes had passed by, and her notebook was still blank. Her hands were clammy as she played with her pencil. Unable to decide what to write, El’s mind drifted to one of her tutoring sessions where Mike explained something he called “metaphors.”

_“Metaphor?” El stared at Mike curiously as they sat at his kitchen table. Books from various subjects were spread out all over._

_“Yeah. It’s like when you use words that aren’t literal to describe something. For example, you were a weapon, a tool for Dr. Brenner and the lab to use. You’re not literally either of those things. You’re El, a human being, a pretty one at that,” he smiled sheepishly._

_“I’ve heard Papa say he’s so hungry he could eat a horse. Is that a metaphor too? Or does he actually want to eat a horse?”_

_Mike laughed. “Yeah that’s a metaphor too. I would hope he’s not actually eating horses.”_

_El giggled as she internalized this new concept. It wasn’t so new in that she had never heard a metaphor before. It was more that she knew people used these exaggerations of speech but never knew why or that they had a name._

A lightbulb went on in her head. Our adventures earlier in the summer could be interpreted as a metaphor for what she had learned. This summer, El had learned about acceptance of her friends no matter what as well as found a greater understanding of love, a concept she hadn’t known for much of her life. She decided she would frame these lessons through the metaphor of our adventures in the mansion and inside our visions, disguising them as part of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign. That was basically what Mike did for their last campaign, right?

Licking her lips, she began scribbling words furiously in her notebook, thankful that Hopper and Mike had taught her how to write well enough that she felt comfortable with it now. The clock was ticking and she needed to fill two to three pages as fast as possible.

Ten minutes later Mrs. Wilson announced that time was up and that everyone turn in their notebooks on her desk with their names on the front cover. El had just finished her second page. She had more to write, but she quickly wrote a concluding statement and slammed her pencil down on her desk. She closed her notebook and brought it over to Mrs. Wilson’s desk. Almost everyone had already turned in their notebooks, as there was a large stack of them on her desk and a second stack had already formed. El put hers on top of the shorter second stack and returned to her desk, her first essay, complete. Well, as complete as it could be for the short time she had to write it. She had no idea how Mrs. Wilson would receive her essay, but hoped for the best. It was creative if nothing else. Mike told her teachers love creativity. She smiled to herself in satisfaction.  
______________________________________________________________________________

After biology, we had a twenty minute nutrition break. Max, Dustin, Will and I made our way to our lockers. Will and I split off from them since our lockers were a little ways away from theirs.

“Robert, you almost got me in trouble back there,” Will said with an annoyed tone as he waited for me to get my geography textbook out of my locker.

“But I didn’t,” I protested.

He gave me side eye.

“I’m sorry, Will,” I apologized genuinely.

“It’s ok. Let’s just avoid any more brushes with detention from now on.”

“Sure.” I shut the door to my locker.

“Hi Will!” I heard from behind me.

Will and I turned around. It was Jennifer Hayes. _Oh boy._

“Oh, hey Jennifer,” Will waved awkwardly.

“How was your summer?” She asked as she twirled her blonde locks.

Will scratched his head. “Good. How was yours?”

“Amazing! I volunteered at the animal shelter and helped find homes for all the poor furry friends that people left behind.”

“That’s cool,” Will said. I could really feel the second-hand awkwardness right now. Jennifer of course had no idea we were together and was therefore flirting with him.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. I think it’s very kindhearted.”

Jennifer blushed. “Thanks. What did you do this summer?”

Will really wanted to get out of this conversation now. “Um, well I went to a concert in Chicago and went to the new mall a bunch. Listen, I gotta go catch up with my other friends. I’ll catch you later.”

“Oh, ok. Later then!” She waved and sashayed away. Will and I left in the opposite direction.

I gave him a funny look when we were far enough away.

“What?”

“You know what,” I smirked.

“I can’t help it if she likes me. It’s not like we can tell her about us.”

“At least you wouldn’t have to put up with _that_.”

“No, not happening,” Will reaffirmed.

“Don’t crush her heart too hard,” I warned. “She did cry at your funeral.”

Will winced at the thought of the funeral the town had held for him while he was missing in the Upside Down.

“Eventually she’ll figure out her feelings aren’t mutual on her own… right?” Will looked me for confirmation.

I shrugged.  
______________________________________________________________________________

My geography class passed by with no incident. Max and Mike were my only friends in it. On the way to class Max and I told Mike about what happened in our last class, which of course shocked him but also made him excited for his class tomorrow with Ms. Chung. We all realized pretty quickly how easy this geography class was going to be after going over the syllabus and sitting through our first lesson.

At 11:55am, it was finally time for lunch. I walked with Max and Mike to the lunch line. Steve told us the meals here were not much to look forward to, but at least they had pudding cups. The line was much longer than in middle school. I decided I might want to start bringing my own lunches again like I used to in elementary school when my mom packed them for me, unless there was some special occasion like pizza day.

When the three of us finished going through the lunch line, we found Will, El and Dustin sitting at a table on the right side of the cafeteria. Their classes must have been closer to the cafeteria than our geography class was, since they had clearly already gone through the lunch line. Will and Dustin were sitting next to each other. I sat on the other side of Will. Mike and Max sat on either side of El, who was across from Will and Dustin.

“So is this our table now, is that how this works?” I asked after I settled onto the bench seat.

“Who knows whether it’ll still be here tomorrow?” Dustin shrugged.

“So El, how were your first two classes?” Max asked. El had biology with a different teacher after the nutrition break.

“Not bad,” El smiled. “I wrote my first essay in English class.”

We all looked shocked. “Damn, you already had to write an essay?” Dustin asked incredulously.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t too scary. She just made us write about what we did this summer and what we learned from it.”

“What did you write about?” Will wondered.

“Our adventures in the mansion,” El said frankly.

“What?!” Dustin yelped, not believing what he was hearing. Softening his voice, he said, “You know we’re not supposed to ever mention the you know what to anyone.”

“As a metaphor,” she clarified.

Mike smiled. “Like our D&D campaigns.”

“Exactly,” El said.

“What’s the metaphor for?” I questioned her.

“Guys enough questions. Let her eat,” Mike insisted.

I turned to Will. “How was gym?”

“Boring,” he replied. “How was geography?”

“Boring,” I laughed. Will smiled back at me. He knew my question was rhetorical because I knew how much Will hated gym class. Like me, he wasn’t very coordinated when it came to sports involving balls. At least I enjoyed running. Will, not so much.

Max spotted Lucas with Todd and his other teammates on the other side of the cafeteria. She turned back toward us. “I promised Lucas I’d go sit with him for a bit, but I’ll be back soon.” She got up and brought her lunch tray with her.

“Ok, see you in a bit,” El said as Max started to walk away.

Max turned around and smiled at her best friend. She headed toward the jocks’ table.

Lucas noticed Max coming over. “Max! Hey, glad you made it over.” He turned to his football buddies. “Guys, this is my girlfriend Max.”

Todd eyed her briefly. “So she _is_ real after all?” he joked to Lucas, who rolled his eyes. There was something about the guy Max already didn’t really like. And that was independent of knowing he had potentially bullied Will and me at the pool. “Sorry where are my manners? I’m Todd,” he extended his hand out. Max shook it hesitantly. Todd turned to the boy sitting on the other side of Lucas. “Hey Ed, let her sit next to her boyfriend,” he commanded. Ed, a scrawny kid with jet black hair scooted out of the way without protest. He didn’t look very much like a football player.

“It’s not a big deal. I can stand. I just stopped by to say hi,” Max played off Todd’s invitation to sit at the crowded table.

“What’s the matter? Don’t want to sit with your boyfriend?” Todd stared at her curiously.

“Lay off her, Todd,” Lucas warned his friend.

“I was just messing with you,” Todd smirked at her.

Max stared at him for moment as if she was going to say something rude, but decided against it. “Fine, I’ll sit, but just for a few minutes. I promised my friends I’d be back.” She sat down at the spot where Ed had scooted over from.

“How was geography?” Lucas asked Max.

“Boring,” Max replied. “How was French?”

“C'était bon,” Lucas beamed.

Max smirked. “Glad you enjoyed it, Monsieur Sinclair.”

Lucas snorted.

Unbeknownst to Max and Lucas, Todd and the others at the table exchanged sneering looks over the couple’s dorky interaction with each other.

“You coming to our first game on Friday? Maybe you’ll get to see me make a touchdown catch!” Lucas asked eagerly. He was a wide receiver for the Hawkins Tigers JV team.

“Dude, of course she’s coming,” Todd butted in. “Is that even a question?”

Max rolled her eyes. “Yeah, I’ll be there.” She sighed. “Lucas, I gotta go back to the others. Meet me at my locker right after school.”

“But I have practice, and you have your tryouts,” Lucas protested. “Don’t you wanna get there on time?”

“Just be there,” Max insisted before she walked off with her tray.

“You heard her, Lucas. Be there,” Todd mocked.

“Shut up, Todd,” Lucas glared at him. Todd laughed at his friend’s defensiveness.

When Max got back to our table Dustin was telling us about the junior lifeguard program, which had just ended a few days ago.

“Wow, even when you’re not in the pool your mind is,” Max laughed as she sat back down.

Dustin’s face flushed. “C’mon! That’s not fair! You just happened to get back at right as I started talking about the program.”

“Sorry. Please do go on about your amazing lifeguard program,” Max teased.

Dustin rolled his eyes. “As I was saying, now that I’ve completed it, I’m a certified lifeguard, and it’s all thanks to Heather.”

“Whatever happened to Heather anyway?” I wondered.

“Yeah did you two ever go out?” El asked.

“No, I’ve moved on,” Dustin revealed with a sparkle in his eyes.

Max looked genuinely surprised. “Wait, what? Do tell.”

“After my last lesson with Heather, I was about to ask her out, for real this time. But I stopped myself. I realized Heather was too old for me. It would have been like dancing with Mike’s sister at the Snowball.”

“I still can’t believe that happened,” Mike grimaced.

“What can I say? Your sister’s a nice lady,” Dustin smirked. Mike groaned. “Anyway, you all remember that girl Will danced with at the Snowball? Jennifer Hayes?”

El gulped. Everyone else including myself nodded.

“So since she and Will are obviously incompatible, I’ve set my sights on her. She’s really pretty and seems nice,” Dustin announced confidently.

Will looked a bit concerned. Jennifer had just flirted with him a couple of hours ago, which didn’t make him feel very good about Dustin’s chances with her.

Of course his concern was nothing compared to how El was feeling in that moment. Internally she was straight up panicking. Should she tell everyone she had just talked to Jennifer in English class and learned that she clearly still liked Will or keep it to herself to not make Dustin feel bad?

Mike noticed something was troubling her. “What’s wrong El? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”

“Another metaphor?”

Mike nodded.

“Nothing’s wrong,” El lied. She decided to spare Dustin’s feelings just as she spared Jennifer’s feelings earlier.

Mike studied his girlfriend for a moment but decided not to press her, not here at least.

The end of lunch bell rang, cutting this awkward conversation short.

We all threw away our trash and brought our trays back at the used tray collection area.

After we finished cleaning up, Mike walked with El to her locker to grab her textbook for her geometry class. Mine was already in my bag so I told her I’d catch up with her in a bit. I turned to my boyfriend. “Will, you think you have time meet me at my locker after school?”

“Yeah, I can spare a few minutes before AV Club,” he replied.

“Great, see you then.” Subconsciously I started to lean forward for a hug before realizing what I was doing. I awkwardly shifted back and waved. I could feel the embarrassment oozing off of me. God I hated not being able to hug him here.

“See ya,” he smiled, waving back. He walked off to his geography class, which he was not looking forward to after hearing from me how boring it was.


	13. The First Day, Part II

For my last class of the day, I had geometry with El. I decided not to take honors geometry like Mike and the others were. I had always struggled with math. I didn’t hate it per se, but it was more challenging for me than other subjects. However, for whatever reason, the math involved in photography wasn’t hard for me to grasp at all.

As soon as I walked into the classroom El waved me over to an empty seat next to her. On the other side of the seat was a boy with curly blonde hair. He was tall and lanky, about Mike’s height. He was busy talking to some other guy behind him.

“I’m glad you’re in this class with me,” El said. “It’s been lonely so far in my other classes.”

I made a little pouty face in sympathy. “I’m glad too.”

While El and I sat quietly waiting for class to start, the curly haired boy next to me was talking to his friend about running 5Ks over the summer prepping for cross country. That piqued my interest. This kid was obviously also going to be at tryouts after school.

Making new friends wasn’t something I was particularly well-versed in. I kind of just stumbled into the party back in first grade when I first met Will that day I forgot my lunch, and he introduced me to Mike and Lucas. Ever since then, I never had to go out of my way to make friends. Dustin joined us in the fourth grade when he moved to Hawkins. Mike had been responsible for bringing Dustin into the fold. As for El we had run into her in the woods while looking for Will, and the rest was history. Lucas and Dustin had invited Max to hang out with us on Halloween last year, and she had stuck with us ever since. Of course later on Max and I became closer, but she had already been a part of the group for a while. So now, when an opportunity to make a new friend presented itself, I decided maybe I should just go for it, having never really tried before up to this point. I tapped his shoulder gently. He turned away from his friend to face me. “Hey, I couldn’t help but overhear you talking about cross country. I’m joining too,” I smiled, somewhat nervously.

His dark blue eyes lit up as he grinned. “Oh cool! A fellow runner. What’s your name?”

I relaxed upon seeing his cheery expression. “Robert.”

“I’m Jack. Pleased to meet you, Robert.” He shook my hand.

El observed us silently, her lips curling into a smile.

“So did you run this summer too?” Jack asked me.

“Yeah, a bit. With my friend, Max,” I replied. Max and I had gone for morning runs together maybe two or three times in the past month.

“Is he joining too?”

“ _She_ , and yeah.”

“Cool. Can’t wait to meet her too. We should all go running some time like on a weekend morning or something,” Jack suggested. Wow, this guy was really friendly.

“Sure, sounds great,” I smiled.

The fifth period bell rang and our teacher Mr. Mundy got up from his desk and started class. He handed out packets with various math problems for us to solve, trying to gauge our understanding of algebra before we jumped right into geometry. El, Jack and I, as well as the rest of the class started working on our packets.  
______________________________________________________________________________

At 3pm, the bell finally rang and I was free. Well, sort of. I still had cross country practice.

“Hey, wanna walk over to the track together?” Jack offered as we packed our backpacks.

“I would, but I promised I’d meet one of my other friends first,” I declined his invitation.

“Ok, see you there then!” he said cheerily.

I waved as he darted out of class. Man, this guy was fast!

El and I walked out of class together. “So first day, not too bad?” I asked her.

“No, not too bad,” El replied. “The math might be a little tricky, but I’ll catch up.”

“Let me know if you need help with it. We can figure it out together.”

“Sure.” El’s mind seemed to be on something else now, as she was staring off into the distance with a slightly concerned expression. I wondered what she was thinking about. Could it just be her upcoming tryouts or did something else happen today? She did seem troubled by something at the end of lunch earlier.

“My locker’s the other way, and I know you gotta get to yours to pick up your racket and whatever, so I guess I’ll see you tomorrow. Good luck at your tryouts! You got this, El!” I hoped my words of encouragement would help her feel better even if it wasn’t the tryouts troubling her.

She snapped out of whatever funk she was in. “Thanks, Robert! Have fun at cross country! See you tomorrow!” She waved as she walked away in the opposite direction.

I headed to my locker. Will wasn’t there quite yet when I arrived at it. I looked at my watch. 3:05. Cross country started at 3:25. While I waited, I got my running shoes and shorts out of my locker, as well as the rest of my textbooks.

Not too long after, I saw Will walking faster than normal toward me. He was panting a little when he got to my locker. I set my running shoes on the floor.

“I don’t have too much time because AV Club starts at 3:15, but I can chat for a bit,” Will said, still breathing fast.

“So how was it?”

“Boring,” Will smirked. “How was geometry?”

“Not bad so far. I met this runner dude Jack, who’s going to be on the team with me. He seems cool,” I shared.

“Making new friends already?”

“Maybe,” I shrugged. “Hey, I was wondering if you wanted to come over to my place on Saturday evening and watch a movie or something,” I offered.

“Sure. Sounds nice,” Will grinned. “If there’s nothing else super important…” He paused, waiting to see if I had anything else to say. Although there was something I was thinking about saying, I decided I would save it for another time. “All right then, I better go. Good luck with your cross country tryouts!”

“Thanks! Let me know how AV Club goes! We can talk on Supercom later if you’d like.”

“Yeah, I’d like that. Later, Robert!” He waved before heading toward the AV Club classroom.

“Later, Will!” I waved back. I started off toward the boys locker room to change into my running shorts and shoes.  
______________________________________________________________________________

When Max got to her locker, Lucas was already there waiting.

“Well, you didn’t waste any time at all,” Max smiled, impressed at her boyfriend’s promptness.

“I do have practice soon,” Lucas justified.

Max’s smile faded. “There’s something I have to tell you… it’s about Todd.”

“What is it?”

“Will and Robert saw him at the pool a few weeks ago with a bunch of guys. Will said the group harassed them for rubbing sunscreen on each others’ backs. They called them fairies.”

Lucas’s cheery expression dropped. _Todd wouldn’t say something like that, right?_ he thought to himself. _He was cool. Not pathetic like Troy and James._ “You positive he was there?”

“That’s what they said,” Max confirmed.

Shocked, Lucas stared at the ground for a moment before looking up at his girlfriend again. “Ok. Thanks for letting me know.”

“Sure.”

They started making their way through the school hallway toward the locker rooms. Lucas stayed relatively quiet as they walked, letting Max do most of the talking. Her voice faded out as he retreated into his own mind. He could hardly believe what he had just heard. Todd, the quarterback he looked up to as the definition of cool and who seemed to warm up to him over the past month had at least been with a group of boys that had bullied two of his oldest friends if not also taken part himself. He didn’t want to believe it, but he knew Max would’t lie about something like this.

“Lucas! Have you even been listening?” Max almost yelled at him as they reached the locker rooms.

“I’m sorry, what?” Lucas looked confused. During their walk, he had just nodded or agreed with Max when something she said warranted a response.

“Wow. Since your mind is clearly somewhere else, I’m just gonna go. Later,” she huffed and walked off heading toward the door to the girls locker room.

“Sorry, Max. Have fun at cross country!”

She ignored him, pushing the door to the girls locker room open and disappearing inside, leaving Lucas high and dry.

Lucas sighed and walked a bit down the hall and entered the boys locker room.  
______________________________________________________________________________

I found a quiet corner of the locker room to change into my running shorts and sneakers. I was never one for rowdy locker room talk, neither taking part in it nor being near it. Fortunately the locker room was relatively empty at this point, as pretty much the whole football team had already come and went.

The door to the locker room opened. I heard the squeak of sneakers moving quickly across the concrete floor. Whoever had just came in was in a rush, probably running late for practice. The steps got closer and closer to me until they reached the row of lockers I was in. I had just finished changing into my shorts by this time and was starting to lace up my sneakers.

I looked up at the person as one might naturally when someone approaches them. It was Lucas.

“Oh, wasn’t expecting to see _you_ here,” he said. It was the first time he had spoken to me since that ill-fated sleepover.

“Wasn’t expecting to see you either,” I replied cooly as I continued to tie my shoes.

“It’s actually pretty funny that I run into you now of all times,” he remarked with an almost relieved tone.

I gave him the stink eye. I was not amused in the least bit. “Oh yeah? And why is that?” More than anything, I wanted to lash out at him, to let out all the bottled up anger and grief that he had caused Will and me as well as the rest of the party for the last few weeks of the summer. Even though this wasn’t the place, it took everything in my power to restrain myself.

“Max just told me that you and Will had some sort of encounter with Todd and some of his buddies at the Hawkins Pool?”

“Who’s Todd?” I asked playing coy, hoping maybe he’d leave me alone if I didn’t cooperate.

Lucas of course saw through my bullshit. “We both know you know who Todd is. Look, I get it. You probably hate me. Leaving the party behind wasn’t easy for me, but it’s something I needed to do. And it may seem like I hate you and Will, but I don’t. I really don’t. If I did, I wouldn’t even bother talking to you right now.”

Maybe Max was right about him still caring about us after all. I dropped the act, folding my arms and leaning against the locker behind me. “Yeah, we saw him there.”

“Do you remember if it was specifically him that called you a fairy?”

“I didn’t catch exactly who said what. They can all go to hell as far as I care,” I declared. “Are we done here?” Even if his concern was genuine, I really wanted out of this conversation.

“You’re kind of in front of my locker,” he replied, his hands holding the straps of his backpack and foot tapping on the floor.

Embarrassed, I turned around to look at the locker I had been leaning on. I grabbed my stuff and darted away, pushing past him. Eventually I’d get my own locker once I was officially on the team, hopefully far away from Lucas’s.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Unlike my locker room exchange with Lucas, my first cross country practice was a blast. I introduced Max to Jack, and they hit it off pretty well. Max could hardly believe at first how bubbly and cheerful Jack was, as no one in the party other than maybe Dustin was ever that cheery all the time. But even Dustin wasn’t quite as exuberant. Eventually she acclimated to it, finding it somewhat refreshing from the negativity that had followed Lucas’s departure from the party.

The coach had us run around town on a route that took us through downtown all the way to Mirkwood and back. The three of us all ran together, though I could tell Jack was intentionally slowing himself down to talk to us. While conversing with him I found out he had an older sister named Sharon who was a senior and knew Nancy from sharing classes together.

Jack was one of those kids that had been at Hawkins Middle School with me, but whom I never knew existed until today. The party kept to themselves much of the time, and I never really paid attention to people outside of it so much, aside from people like Troy and James, whom I consciously tried to avoid at all costs, and various girls that Lucas, Dustin and Mike would bring up in casual conversation, often comparing who’s prettier. Often they’d ask for my opinion on a girl, and I’d have to try to come up with something to say, even though I didn’t view girls in the way those three did. So I would try to pick out non physical qualities that I liked about whatever girl they were talking about, whether it be smarts, friendliness, etc, which meant I had to at least try to pay a little attention to the girls in our grade. Sometimes I would just resort to picking out how they dressed or their hair if I was really unfamiliar with whatever girl they were talking about. Will seemed to have a similar approach to me in these sorts of conversations, and probably had felt just as left out and bored of them as I had been. Of course this was before most of the party had figured out that Will and I seemed to have eyes for each other. It was a suspicion they had held onto but didn’t know for sure until we admitted it the day after Lucas got trapped in his own mind by the shadow man.

Our practice ended around 5:30pm when we got back to campus from our run. We all signed a roster sheet at the end as our official registration for the team and would receive jerseys and matching running shorts within the following week.

When I got home, I heard Max’s voice emitting from my Supercom, which was resting on its usual spot on my nightstand.

“Robert! You home yet? Come in, over.”

I dived onto my bed and grabbed it, pressing the talk button. “I’m here, Max. What’s up? Over.”

“El’s got an announcement to make. Everyone here?” Max asked.

I heard Mike’s, Dustin’s and Will’s confirmations on our shared channel.

“I made the tennis team!” El squealed.

“Oh my god! That’s amazing! Congrats El!” I congratulated her. Everyone’s voices interrupted each other as they tried to do the same. We all kind of gave up on saying “over” because too many people were talking at once.

“Thanks guys! I’m so excited for you all to come to my matches!” El said proudly.

“We should celebrate this weekend! How about going to the new bowling alley in the mall on Saturday night? Will and Robert said it was awesome,” Mike started to plan.

 _Great._ That was the same time I had invited Will over for to watch a movie at my place. I could have pushed it up to Friday night if Max wasn’t dragging all of us to Hawkins High’s first football game of the season.

“Works for me, over,” Dustin agreed.

“Yeah sounds fun, over,” Max chimed in.

Will hadn’t answered yet, probably because he knew we had already agreed on our movie night during that time. That would explain his hesitation.

“Will, Robert? You guys in? Over,” Mike asked.

“Yeah, I think that would work for me,” Will finally said. “Robert, what do you think? Over.” Well, so much for hesitation.

I had kind of wanted to just hang out the two of us this weekend, but I also felt it was important to celebrate with El. I didn’t want to not show my support, especially now that Will was throwing our plans out the window. I knew how much making the tennis team meant to her. “Sure, let’s do it, over,” I finally agreed.

“Hey Robert? Why don’t we invite Jack along? I’m sure he’d love to join us, over,” Max suggested.

“Who’s Jack? Over,” Mike asked curiously.

“A teammate from cross country. You’ll like him, over,” Max promised. _Or maybe he’ll annoy the hell out of him with his cheery attitude_ , I thought to myself with a smirk.

“I was kind of thinking it would be just the party, over,” Mike said, expressing disapproval of Max’s idea.

“C’mon Mike, what’s one extra person? Over,” Will tried to persuade him.

“Yeah, I think it would freshen things up a bit, over,” I added. Might as well make things interesting if our stay at home date’s cancelled.

“Fine, invite him, over,” Mike relented.

“Yay, I can’t wait for this weekend! Over,” El beamed.

Everyone said their goodbyes and put their Supercoms down. As I set my mine down and lay on my bed, I remembered I had wanted to talk to Will privately. Picking up my Supercom once more, I messaged him on our designated channel, Channel B, praying he had remembered to switch it over also. We used Channel A as the party’s main communication channel.

“Will, you still there? Over,” I spoke into it.

A couple of seconds passed before I heard a response. “Yeah, I’m still here, over.”

“So I guess movie night’s cancelled then? Over,” I asked.

“Yeah, sorry about that. I wasn’t about to say no to celebrating with El. This is a big deal for her, over,” Will apologized.

“It’s ok. I feel the same way,” I agreed. “But on that note, I do want to make sure we both try to make time for just us. I know we’re both going to be really busy, but spending time together just the two of us is really important to me, over.”

“I really want to spend time with you too. We’ll make something work. Obviously weekends are better, but if you wanna come over to study bio or something on a week night, you’re more than welcome to, over,” Will offered.

“I’d like that,” I said, smiling giddily to myself. “How was AV Club? Over.”

“It was cancelled,” he told me, much to his chagrin. “There was a note on the door saying no meetings until next week, over.”

“Oh, bummer,” I sympathized. “You’d think they’d say something about that in the morning announcements, over.”

“Yeah,” I heard Will sigh. “Must have been a last minute decision. Anyway, how was cross country? Over.”

“It was pretty fun! I ran all the way from school to Mirkwood and back, over,” I shared.

Will made a retching sound on the other end. “Sounds awful, over.”

I laughed. “One of these days, I’m going to take you on a morning run with Max and Jack. We’ll go nice and slow, and you’ll see it’s not so bad, over.”

“You’ll have to drag me out of bed kicking and screaming, over.” Will joked.

I laughed again. “So anyway, you’ll never guess who finally spoke to me in the locker room before practice, over.”

“Wait… it wasn’t… no way!” Will gasped, figuring out for himself exactly who I was talking about. “What did he say? Over.”

“He wanted to know if it was Todd who specifically said stuff to us at the pool or if he was just there. Do you recall? Over.”

“All I know is that I recognized him as being part of that group.” Will answered. “I really hope Lucas doesn’t try to talk to Todd. I don’t want Todd giving us any more attention than we already got from him and his friends that day, over.” There was a hint of worry in his voice.

“I don’t know, I kind of want Lucas to realize he messed up by ditching us for those assholes, over,” I admitted.

“You know he isn’t going to just come crawling back, right?” Will said. “And even if he did, why should we accept him back into the party? Over.”

“Because deep down he’s still one of us, even if he doesn’t think so. He also flat out admitted he doesn’t hate us, over.”

“Hmm. I never would have guessed from the way he’s treated us, over.” Will’s biting sarcasm caught me a little off guard. He wasn’t usually one for sarcasm, except sometimes when we flirted with each other, and then it was always playful of course, but anger brought out a more scathing form of it. Few things really angered Will, but betrayal was on the top of his list. I was right there with him on that.

Before Lucas spoke to me today, I had been fine pretending he didn’t exist except as some fantasy boyfriend of Max’s. It had been much easier to completely let Lucas go, but now that I had verbal confirmation that he really did care about us (in some weird detached way), I couldn’t bring myself to do that any more. Now I found myself rooting for some redemption that may never come. _Screw you, Lucas. Screw you for giving me the slightest shred of hope._


	14. The Celebration

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey everyone! Sorry for the really long wait! I was on vacation for two weeks, and then I got sick like right as I returned home. Also this was by far the hardest chapter to write so far and possibly the longest too, so I hope it turned out ok and the wait was worth it!

“Max, why are you dragging all of us to this game?” Mike groaned.

It was the first Friday of the school year, and the six of us were walking up to the stands in the football stadium. The crowd was sparse because it was a JV game and not the varsity game later in the evening.

“You can leave if you want, no one’s forcing you to be here. But I’m pretty sure El is looking forward to her first football game, right El?” Max turned to her.

El nodded. “Yeah, it should be fun.”

Mike sighed in defeat. He wasn’t about to ditch his girlfriend just to skip watching the game. “Why are _you_ guys sticking around?” Mike demanded of Dustin, Will and me.

“I don’t know, maybe I just wanna watch Lucas get tackled over and over again,” I laughed. Dustin and Will joined in.

Max glared at me. “Hey, watch it.”

I mouthed “sorry” to her, but Will gave me a smirk, and I snorted in response, trying to contain my laughter.

We picked out a row in the stands somewhere in the middle, not too far back and not too close to the ground.

The game against Cloverdale High School was not all that exciting, and even if it had been, it was hard to root for a team led by #18 Todd Phillips. Lucas did get tackled a few times, but of course he didn’t always get passed the ball anyway. Max cheered extra loud when Lucas made a touchdown catch and run. The JV cheerleaders were cheering at the game, and Stacey Smith, the girl that rejected Dustin at the Snowball, was on the squad, as was Jennifer Hayes.

“You sure you’re over Stacey?” Mike asked Dustin, who was staring wide eyed at the cheerleaders as they did a jump and catch routine during one of the timeouts.

“Yeah, she doesn’t deserve this,” he gestured at himself. “Besides Jennifer’s rocking that cheerleader outfit way better.”

El and Will had the same pained expression on their faces. Somehow they noticed each other and acknowledged it.

Dustin caught wind of their exchange. “Ok, what is going on?” Dustin demanded of El. “Every time I bring Jennifer up, you look super uncomfortable. Did she kill someone or something?”

“El, do you know something about her?” Mike asked his girlfriend gently.

El nodded.

“It’s ok, El you can tell us,” Max encouraged.

El sighed. “I didn’t want to say anything because I didn’t want you to feel bad, but Jennifer told me she’s still interested in Will.”

Dustin looked unsurprised. “That’s it?”

El nodded again.

“You didn’t have to keep that from me. That’s old news. Can you blame her, though? Look at him,” he said ruffling Will’s hair. Will blushed from Dustin’s compliment and fixed his hair. “Besides she doesn’t know he’s gay and taken, so she still thinks she has a chance with him.”

“But if no one tells her, she’s going to keep liking Will,” El pointed out.

“That’s why you gotta let her down easy, Will” Dustin explained. “Tell her you don’t feel the same way about her.”

Will looked uncomfortable. “I was just going to avoid her,” he disclosed, his eyes on the game.

“She’ll just think you’re playing hard to get,” Dustin replied.

“But I’m not,” Will protested, looking at Dustin now.

“Of course you’re not, but it only matters what she _thinks_.”

“Dustin, why don’t you just talk to her?” Max suggested. “Maybe she’ll forget all about Will if you show some interest in her.”

“She’s got it pretty bad for him,” I countered, finally contributing after just letting everyone else talk. “She came up to Will on the first day of school, twirling her hair and everything.”

Mike chimed in. “Will, what if you go on a date with her, not like a real date, but just something as friends, and you tell her you don’t feel the same way about her as she does about you afterward. At least then she’ll see you gave it a shot.”

“I like that plan,” Dustin agreed. “I can swoop in and comfort her after Will leaves.”

“I don’t,” I disagreed. I didn’t like the idea of anyone else going on a date with Will while we were together, real or otherwise.

“No, I don’t want to do that. That’ll just make her feel worse,” Will refused.

“So what, you’re just going to hold her feelings hostage?” Dustin accused Will.

“Hey, back off,” I defended my boyfriend.

“This is why I didn’t want to say anything,” El said, shaking her head in disappointment. “Look at what this is doing to you guys.”

“Yeah, this is honestly so stupid,” Max agreed. “Like I said, just talk to her, Dustin. Someone actually giving her attention might be what makes her get over her crush on Will.”

“This _game_ is stupid. Can we go now? They’re going to lose anyway,” Mike begged Max. The score was 42-21 Cloverdale High. Cloverdale had possession of the ball with less than 5 minutes left in the game.

“You mean you don’t wanna stay for the varsity game?” Max asked sarcastically.

Mike gave her side eye.

Max turned to El. “El, you wanna stay or go?”

The brunette shrugged. “We can go if everyone wants.”

“Then it’s settled. Let’s get the hell out of here,” Mike decided.

We all filed out of our row and down the steps to the ground. Everyone biked over to Benny’s for burgers and then to Mike’s house for a game night. Mike had the beginnings of a new campaign that made good on his promise to make Dustin a merman. He had worked fervently on it the past two days because he knew the homework was going to start piling on real soon, and he’d have less time to make it good.

Unlike our last game night, there were no footsie battles between Will and me under the table. It was as though there was an invisible barrier between us at the D & D table because we never made any physical contact that evening, except when we hugged each other before biking off in our separate directions to go home later that night. Maybe he was just really focused on the campaign. He was definitely excited for this one, as was I. How couldn’t we be when Dustin was a freaking merman?! Or perhaps Will still felt weird about the last D & D session and what happened after it. I was probably just overthinking things. It’s not like he was avoiding me the same way he did at Steve’s pool party.

______________________________________________________________________________

Hawkins High went on to lose their JV game. The team members went back to the locker room to change into their normal clothes, but were required to stay for the varsity game up next. After just about everyone else had left the locker room, Lucas pulled Todd aside.

“Hey Todd, can I talk to you for a second?” Lucas asked his friend.

Todd eyed Lucas for a moment, his eyebrows raised. “What’s up?” he replied.

“I was… um…I was wondering if you could clear something up for me,” Lucas said. He was a little nervous approaching Todd like this, but he knew he owed it to Max, Will and me.

“You wanna know why we lost? Why you’re sore after getting tackled multiple times even though no one at practice is going to tackle as hard as they do in games? Why I didn’t pass the ball to you as much as you would have liked?”

“Actually…” Lucas interrupted. “This has nothing to do with football.”

“Oh, what is it then?” Todd folded his arms.

“I heard you and some of the guys were at the public pool back in the beginning of the month, and some of them called my…” he cleared his throat. “…former friends fairies because they were rubbing sunscreen onto each other’s backs.”

Todd’s blue eyes lit up, seemingly recalling what Lucas was referencing. “Oh those dweebs? You got it wrong, man. Sure, some of us started making fun of them, but I told them to drop it. We were on our way out anyway. None of us laid a finger on either of them. Kind of felt sorry for them, you know? Like they didn’t know any better.” He paused for a moment. “Wait, you said they were your friends?”

“ _Former_ friends,” Lucas corrected him.

“Let me guess, you left them behind to join the cool kids. Smart move, Lucas. Cold, but smart. I respect it.”

“So you didn’t say anything to them?” Lucas tried to confirm, still focused on trying to get a straight answer out of his friend.

Todd gave him a mildly suspicious look. “No. Who told you about that anyway, if they’re not friends with you anymore?” he wondered.

“My girlfriend. She’s still friends with them."

Todd stared off toward the door. “Ah, Max. She’s a feisty one, huh? Redheads always are.”

Lucas shrugged, not sure how to answer that.

“You like ‘em feisty don’t you?” Todd laughed.

Lucas forced a smile.

“Well, if there’s nothing else, I’m gonna catch up with the rest of the boys. Good talk,” he patted Lucas’s back harder than what would be considered comfortable.

Lucas winced a bit. “Yeah, good talk.” He followed Todd out of the locker room. Todd’s promise seemed genuine to him. Neither Will nor I had specifically identified Todd as having called us fairies, so he was inclined to believe Todd when he said he didn’t say anything. To Lucas we were making a big deal out of nothing, and he believed we should exercise more caution when out in public.

_____________________________________________________________________________

It was now around 7:30pm on Saturday evening. I had just parked and locked my bike at the bike rack in front of the mall entrance and was headed inside for El’s bowling celebration party. I was the last person to get there other than Jack, who arrived only about a couple of minutes afterward. I greeted everyone when I arrived.

“Hey, you’re wearing the shirt again!” Will grinned at me. I had decided to break out the blue and red hibiscus floral print shirt from our first date for El’s party.

“Yeah, I thought it would fit the occasion well,” I smiled back.

Jack entered through the automatic sliding door into the bowling alley. “Hi Robert! Hi Max! Hi Jane!” Jack waved at us when he spotted us hanging out near the lounge, which had a pool table and bright red leather sofas on either side of it. The three of us greeted him back. He approached our group. Jack had officially met El in our second geometry class yesterday and had congratulated her for making the team. El liked Jack and his positive aura.

“Cool shirt, Robert,” Jack complimented me.

Jeez, this shirt was like magic or something. “Thanks.”

“So you’re Jack,” Mike surmised.

“Here in the flesh,” he grinned.

“I’m Mike, that’s Dustin, and that’s Will,” he introduced Jack to the rest of the unfamiliar faces in our party. 

Jack shook all their hands. “Pleased to meet you all.”

“So Jane,” Max started to say. Calling her by her official name around others outside the party always felt a little weird for us. “When’s your first match?”

“Next Thursday after school!” El beamed. “And it’s on our home court!”

“I wouldn’t miss it for the world,” Mike announced proudly.

“Thanks Mike,” she replied. She looked at everyone else. “Don’t worry guys if you can’t make it. I understand. I know you all have other activities going on. There might be a Saturday game or tournament later on in the season. I’d have to check the schedule.”

“Cross country keeps us on a tight leash,” Max acknowledged, “but if there’s an opening in my schedule that lines up with one of your games, I’d love to come watch you play!” Jack and I nodded in agreement.

“Hopefully something works out,” El said.

“I can get out of AV club to watch you on Thursday. Really, it’s not a big deal for me to skip a day,” Will assured her. El’s lips curled into a smile.

“Unfortunately I can’t get out of water polo practice, but I’ll be thinking of you in the pool… not _you_ in the pool, but _me_ in the pool thinking of you,” Dustin corrected himself hastily.

Max rolled her eyes. “She gets it, merman.” El giggled a bit.

“We all ready to bowl?” Mike asked, bringing us back into the here and now.

Everyone replied in the affirmative.

We went up to the counter to rent shoes and get a couple of lanes. We needed two because the computer system that tracked scores could only keep track of six per lane, and there were seven of us with Jack. El, Mike, and Dustin took one of the lanes while the rest of us took the other lane.

The song “Whip It” by Devo started playing through the bowling alley’s speakers as we started bowling.

“Jack, I’ve got to warn you, I’m pretty good at this,” I teased before I started my turn.

“He’s not kidding,” Will added.

“Hmm, well I’m not too bad myself,” he retorted with a playful smirk.

I swung my arm back and released the bowling ball in a followthrough motion. The ball headed toward that sweet spot. Strike!

I turned around and did a little step twirl dance.

“Showoff,” Will smirked sitting next to Max.

Max snorted.

“You’re up, Jack,” I grinned as I headed back to my seat.

Jack got up, a determined look on his face. “Oh, it’s on.”

He picked up his ball, walked up to the foul line, winded up and released it. To my surprise, he also got a strike. He strutted back toward us.

“Like I said, I’m not too bad myself.” He took a seat next to me. I had no words, but I was pretty sure I had just met my match.

“What aren’t you good at?” Max asked rhetorically.

Jack laughed. “Don’t ask me to play table tennis.”

Later into the game, while Will was bowling, Jack turned to Max and me. “So what’s the deal with you two? You guys dating or something?”

“What? No! Ew! Gross!” Max and I both exclaimed simultaneously.

“I um… I have a boyfriend,” Max explained. “Lucas Sinclair. He’s on the football team.”

“Oh. You’ve never talked about him before,” Jack observed.

“I guess it never came up. It’s not like I go around saying, ‘Hey, I’m Max! By the way, I have a boyfriend.’” 

“Why isn’t he here?” Jack wondered.

Max frowned. “It’s... complicated.”

“You two fighting?”

“No… he kind of had a umm… falling out with everyone else,” Max tried to explain in the vaguest terms possible. She couldn’t tell him everything without giving away Will’s and my sexualities. Will had finished his turn and made his way back to his seat. Before he started to announce it was Max’s turn, he overheard what they were talking about and stayed quiet.

“That must be hard,” Jack sympathized.

“We make it work.” Noticing Will had sat down, she got up. “It’s my turn, I better go.”

Jack nodded. He turned to me as Max went over to the bowling ball return machine and grabbed her ball. “What happened with Lucas, if you don’t mind me asking?”

I tensed up, not sure whether to or how to answer his question.

“I’m sorry, I’m being too pushy, aren’t I?” Jack apologized. He started to turn away.

“Lucas used to be in our party. He was in it even before I was.”

Jack looked at me funny. “Party?”

“It’s a Dungeons and Dragons term. Sorry we’re kind of nerdy.”

“Don’t be, that’s kind of cool actually. Calling your group a party. It’s got a ring to it,” Jack smiled.

I smiled sheepishly. “Anyway, he and Mike had a big fight, and then he left the party.”

“So you were all really close with him?”

“Yeah, we were.”

“Robert, it’s your turn,” Max interrupted as she came back to where we were sitting.

“Ok,” I acknowledged her. I got up.

“Hey, thanks for sharing,” Jack said. “I hope you guys sort everything out eventually.”

“Me too.” I picked up my ball and took my turn. Jack and I were pretty neck and neck this game. Sometimes he’d pull ahead, other times I’d come back with a better turn. Right now, he was up by five points. It was my eighth turn. 

Soon enough the game ended. I clutched at the end. Jack got second place, Will got third and Max came in last.

“Good game, Robert.” Jack extended his hand out, his seemingly perpetual grin on his face.

“Good game, Jack.” I shook his hand.

In the other lane, El won, Dustin came in second and Mike in last.

“Should we mix it up?” Mike asked everyone. “It’s a little quiet in our lane,”

“Sure,” Max replied. “That would be…” her voice trailed off as her eye caught a group of familiar people walking in. “Shit,” Max panicked.

“What’s wrong?” El asked.

“They’re here.” Max pointed at the group she was staring at.

We all looked. There was Lucas with Todd, and some other guys and girls, including Stacey Smith. They were headed our way.

“Well, well, well! Looks like a party! Mind if we join?” Todd asked, butting in. I froze in fear. Now that I saw Todd up close, I knew he definitely was at the pool that day, but I didn’t recognize his voice particularly. I looked over at Will. He also looked perturbed. I vaguely recognized some of his other friends as also having been there. “You don’t mind if your boyfriend joins, right?” Todd nudged Lucas out to the forefront of their group. Lucas sheepishly waved at Max, his eyes avoiding hers.

Max glared at her boyfriend. “What the hell, Lucas?”

“I’m sorry, I tried to convince them to do anything else, but Todd was dead set on bowling,” Lucas apologized. Max had told Lucas her plans tonight. Somehow Lucas must have let them slip to Todd.

Max turned her glare toward Todd. He was really starting to piss her off now.

Mike stepped forward. “This is a private party, back off.”

Todd scoffed. “I don’t see any signs.”

“He said back off,” El stared fiercely at Todd.

Todd leered in amusement at the unfamiliar and peculiar girl in front of him, his lips curling into a smile.

“Todd, let’s just go,” Lucas begged. “I heard the roller derby has half off on pizza tonight.”

Todd’s smile disappeared. He turned to Lucas and spoke with a more serious tone. “We’re bowling. We didn’t come all this way to turn around and go to the opposite side of town because you can’t handle being around your former friends.” He turned back toward us, with the fakest looking grin I’d ever seen plastered on his face. “Enjoy your party.” They walked off toward the counter to get bowling shoes.

“This isn’t really my place to say, but Lucas’s friend seems like kind of a dick,” Jack said to me and Will. We both nodded.

Lucas, Todd and the rest of their group started bowling a few lanes over from us.

I looked over at Max. She looked frazzled. “Max, what’s on your mind?”

“He told them we’d be here. I just know it. Why would he do that?”

“Maybe he wanted to find a way to celebrate with El too?” I jokingly suggested.

Max laughed humorlessly. “Yeah, right.” She paused a moment. “There’s something really off about Todd. He lets on like he’s all high and mighty, but I just know it’s all a facade.”

“He kind of reminds me of Billy,” I observed.

“I don’t know, he doesn’t seem angry like Billy is all the time. Just entitled.”

I nodded in agreement.

“You think Lucas followed up with Todd about the pool thing by now?”

“Who knows?” I shrugged.

“Are we gonna bowl, or what?” Dustin interrupted our conversation. “It’s already been like five minutes since we finished our last game.”

“Sorry, yeah,” Max said as she walked away from me. “El, I’ll go in your lane. Robert, come with me. Dustin, go bowl with Jack and Will.”

We switched up the groups as Max directed. Just as we were about to start our second game, Lucas came over to our lane by himself. “Max, can we talk? Alone?”

“Sure.” She turned around to Mike, El and me. “You guys start without me. El, you can take my turn if you like.”

“Ok,” El accepted.

Max and Lucas went off toward the lounge area near the bar and sat on one of the swanky red leather sofas.

“I didn’t mean for them to show up, I promise,” Lucas spoke first.

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Max said sarcastically.

“I’m sorry,” he apologized. “Really, I am.”

“Did you talk to Todd about the pool thing?” She asked him, pushing past his apology.

“Yeah. He said some of the guys shouted some bad stuff at Robert and Will, but he told them to drop it. Then they left.”

“And you believed him?” Max asked incredulously.

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because he’s obviously lying.”

Her accusation riled Lucas. “How would you know? You weren’t even there!”

“Todd’s bad news, Lucas. Trust me.”

“He’s my friend,” Lucas insisted.

“Is he though? Or is he using you?  Why do you think he insisted on coming here tonight out of any other night?”

“He likes to bowl. We come here sometimes,” Lucas justified.

“Or maybe he’s trying to push your real friends away so you’re stuck with him.”

“What the hell is your problem? You’re acting like Todd is the shadow man with some grand scheme! If you gave him a fair chance, you’d see he’s actually pretty cool.”

Max scoffed. “Have you seen the way he talks to people? He acts like he runs the school.”

“He kind of does, though… at least the lower grades. Your step-brother’s still king in case you forgot.”

“And you actually think that’s a good thing? Running around with someone who thinks they’re above everyone else?”

“You don’t even know Todd. He’s nothing like Billy. Why are you so quick to judge him?”

“When you met me in that back room at the arcade almost a year ago and told me everything about the Upside Down and Will’s disappearance, at first I thought it was all just some made-up story. But you were so insistent that it was true, and so scared of someone bad finding out that you had told me, that I decided to take a leap of faith and let you prove it. And you did. So now, when I come to you and tell you that Todd isn’t who you think he is, instead of taking that same leap of faith for me, you’re not even giving me a chance to prove it.”

“I did give you a chance. When you first told me about that incident, I struggled to wrap my head around it, but I believed you. That’s why I spaced out on you on the way to the lockers. I couldn’t stop thinking about the possibility that Todd might actually be a total jerk. I thought about it obsessively all the way up to the game last night when I finally confronted Todd about it. He told me what happened. That he stuck up for them. He even said he pitied their naivety. Todd may be kind of brash, but he means well. I trust him. He hasn’t given me any reason not to.”

“How about the fact that he hangs around people that bullied your real friends?”

“Robert and Will should have been more careful,” Lucas shot back.

Max threw her hands up in the air. “Wow. So now you’re blaming _them_?”

“You can’t expect everyone to be tolerant of gays. I don’t know how it was in California, but in this town, being gay is looked down on. Can you blame those guys for having a knee-jerk reaction to seeing two boys rubbing each other’s backs?”

“They were applying sunscreen!” She paused for a moment. “How can you even stand to hang around those assholes?” Max questioned him.

“They’re not assholes! Why can’t you just accept that I have new friends?”

Max moved toward Lucas, who was leaning against the pool table, his arms grasping the ledge behind him. “Because they’re not really your friends! You’re trying to be someone you’re not.”

“I’m not trying to be anyone but myself!” Lucas insisted with almost a yell. “You don’t get it.”

“Then help me understand, Lucas,” Max demanded.

He looked around cautiously trying to make sure they were truly alone and out of earshot of anyone and took a breath before starting to pace back and forth near the pool table:

_Ever since Will disappeared, the party hasn’t been the same. That’s when all the weirdness started. El showed up with her crazy powers, the Demogorgon almost killed us, and the bad men were after us. After we found Will, I thought everything would go back to normal, but then a year later he got possessed. And then after the shadow monster was exorcised from Will and El closed the gate, I thought everything would be fine, but then the mansion thing happened. No matter what we do, the Upside Down follows us, follows the party, like it’s drawn to us._

_You have no idea what it was like being trapped in your own mind for what felt like weeks trying to save everyone but failing over and over again. No matter how hard I tried, the shadow man was always there to stop me… to send me back to square one. I never told you this before, but after the first few times he captured me the shadow man offered me a way out of my head, but in exchange I’d have to leave everyone else behind. I refused, and he proceeded to drug me and reset the day. He sensed it, Max. He sensed how desperate I was to escape all the weirdness surrounding the party, but I never let myself take his offer. And that just led to more misery and pain. The shadow man… he knew all my thoughts, my fears, my insecurities. He said it was only a matter of time before I would make the decision to leave everyone behind. I told him he was wrong, and I never gave up on trying to rescue everyone up until you guys showed up for real._

_Then after we escaped from my mind and the shadow man was defeated, Will and Robert were suddenly gay out of nowhere. I started to wonder if maybe I hadn’t escaped after all, that somehow the shadow man was still messing with me. But of course I figured out pretty quickly that wasn’t in my head. After that, I realized the party would never be normal again. Nothing made sense anymore. I started to think about what the shadow man told me, that I’d eventually decide to abandon the party, and the idea started becoming more and more tempting. I wanted so desperately to prove him wrong. I tried to make it work, I really did, but after that sleepover, it just got too weird. I thought if Will and Robert could just pretend to not be together while in school, then maybe things could still be somewhat normal. It seemed like Dustin agreed with me at first, but I guess ultimately I was wrong about that. Then when Mike came over to my house and tried to force me to apologize… apologize for calling out the weirdness, for refusing to just sit there and pretend like everything was normal like it used to be…, and he still refused to acknowledge that things were different, that’s when I knew no one was ever going to listen to me. I knew then it was time to finally make the hard choice to leave the party behind. You can say I gave into temptation or whatever, but for the first time since Will was taken, I finally feel like I’m free from the darkness that’s plagued the party for almost two years._

He continued on: _“_ It’s not like I ever fit in with the party anyway. Look at me.” He pulled up the sleeves of his bomber jacket and showed the dark skin on his arms. “When people looked at me, all they’d see is a scrawny black geek who didn’t fit their stereotypes of what someone who looks like me is supposed to like. It’s one thing for people like Mike and Dustin to be geeks, but for people like me, it’s so much worse. Being on the football team, people finally see me as something other than that black AV Club weirdo. For once, I see acceptance in people’s eyes instead of contempt. And you know what? I actually really like football. When I joined the team, Todd welcomed me with open arms. He made me feel like I belong, as did his other friends. So, no, I’m not trying to be something I’m not, I’m finally who I’m supposed to be.”

He stopped pacing, landing by the side of the pool table. He put his right palm down on the ledge as his eyes met Max’s and waited for a response.

Max glared at him with folded arms, looking utterly disgusted. “And who is that? Because I don’t even recognize you at all anymore. We risked our lives to save you in the mansion, and this is how you thank us? By abandoning the party because some evil monster said you would? I was so relieved when we rescued you, but now I’m starting to think you never really came back at all.”

“I did come back. I’m here in front of you now,” Lucas insisted.

“No, I don’t think he is because the Lucas I know and fell in love with wouldn’t abandon his friends when they need him most. He wouldn’t trust some manipulative bully over his friends or his girlfriend. Friends don’t lie. That’s like the party’s motto, right? Seems like you completely forgot about that when you lied to me for a whole month making me think you actually cared about protecting the party when clearly all you really care about is protecting yourself. I always thought you were a shitty liar, but I guess I was wrong about that because you had all of us fooled pretty good.”

“I do care about the party,” he tried to convince her.

Max chuckled humorlessly. “And now you’re just lying to yourself. If you really cared, you never would have left to begin with. I stood by you, Lucas, after you kicked yourself out of the party, and I tried to make this complicated mess of a relationship work despite all the broken friendships. You have no idea how _ridiculous_ it’s been trying to make excuse after excuse for you to the party and to other people I’ve met since school started. Robert even told me the other day after he saw you in the locker room that he still had faith you’d come back. How the hell was I supposed to respond to that, knowing that was never gonna happen? So I made my excuses, my bullshit promises that you just needed some time to figure things out. It even got to a point where I’d catch myself almost believing it. For a whole month, I’ve played along and put up with your need to expand your horizons… be your true self or whatever. But I _never_ expected that to turn you into… whoever this is.” She gestured at him. “If you’re going to hang around people that treat _my_ friends like shit and trust them over me, you can go fuck yourself.” She flipped him off with both middle fingers. “I’m done.”

Lucas stiffened. It was as though the world had stopped, and everything in the room had disappeared except for Max standing in front of him with her harsh words and rude gesture smacking him in the face over and over again. _I’m done._ Those were the same two words he had used to banish himself from the party. _So this was how it felt to be on the other end of those words._ He swallowed before finally asking the question he dreaded more than anything. “Are you… breaking up with me?”

Max glared at him impatiently, her eyes starting to get watery. “What do you think, shithead?” She stormed off not giving him a chance to answer. The emotions she had largely kept in check during their argument escaped her control. Her eyes flooded with tears as she sprinted to the ladies’ room, which fortunately was empty. The restroom lacked the dim blacklight and colored light ambience of the bowling alley. The harsh bright fluorescent lighting bore down on her, allowing her to see herself with a sense of clarity that was sorely lacking outside the restroom door. She stared at herself in the mirror as she leaned over the sink counter, letting out a yell. Her eye liner and mascara that she almost never put on but had tonight for El’s party bled into the tears that cascaded down her face. She rubbed her eyes, smearing the black and blue liquid around her face and giving her the appearance of a raccoon. She took a wet paper towel and began to wipe her ruined makeup away. 

Lucas remained frozen in place as Max ran off. He blew it, and now she was gone. More than anything, he wanted to leave, to go as far away from the bowling alley as possible. He hadn’t even wanted to come here anyway. It had been Todd’s idea, and that idea had now led to his girlfriend breaking up with him. Tears started to form in his eyes as the weight of what had happened hit him. Lucas sulked back over to Todd and his other new friends, wiping his eyes on the way to prevent anyone from seeing his tears.

“What happened to you? You look like shit,” Todd exclaimed as he noticed Lucas’s sullen expression.

“Max and I… it’s over,” Lucas lamented. 

“Shit that sucks, man.” He paused for a moment. “Eh, who needs her anyway? There’s plenty of fish in the sea,” Todd remarked. “You’ll find someone else.”

“No one else is like her,” Lucas mumbled. “I’m gonna go home, I’ll catch you later.”

“Don’t cry too hard,” Todd joked. He gave Lucas another one of those uncomfortably hard slaps on the back.

Lucas didn’t acknowledge Todd’s joke, or the slap, his mind constantly replaying Max’s final words to him. Lucas darted out of the bowling alley and mall, hopped on his bike, and went home, the wind blowing the tears off his face as he peddled through the chilly late summer night.

______________________________________________________________________________ 

El had noticed Max running to the restroom and excused herself to follow her there, not telling anyone else about seeing Max.

She found Max a sobbing mess and immediately hugged her from behind. Max did not react to the hug, neither flinching nor reciprocating.

“Max, what happened?” El spoke softly.

Max stared down at the sink in front of her, refusing to look at El. “I ruined your party, that’s what happened,” she moped.

El looked confused. “What are you talking about?”

“Lucas and his friends shouldn’t have been here, and they only came because I told Lucas about the party. And to top it all off, I ended things with him, and now I’m leaning over the bathroom sink a total mess instead of celebrating out there with everyone else.” She took a breath. “I’m sorry to bother you with all this. It’s your party. You should get back out there and celebrate.”

“You broke up with Lucas?” El looked shocked as she focused on Max’s face through the reflection in the mirror.

Max sniffled. “I was just so fed up with him, you know? I stuck it out for so long after he left the party. At first I thought maybe he’d come around. When that didn’t look like it was happening any time soon, I still stood by him like an idiot. Now he’d rather trust that asshole Todd than me because he’s so scared to be wrong and refuses to accept that things are different with the party now. I should have just broken up with him after that disaster of a sleepover… after the way he treated Robert and Will. Would have made things way simpler,” Max spoke slowly, laughing humorlessly after she finished.

“You gave him another chance. You did the right thing. It’s not your fault he’s a mouthbreather now,” El assured her.

Max chuckled between sniffles, and rubbed her eyes. Her tears had stopped. She turned around and her eyes met El’s for the first time since El came into the restroom. El let go of Max. “How do you do it? How are you always there when someone needs you? You came back to save everyone last November when all hope seemed like it was gone. You were there for Mike at the Snowball when he needed you. You saved us from the Shadow Man in the mansion. And you’re here now for me. You’re like… like some sort of superhero. I’m not really religious, but there has to be some universal force out there that brought you into our lives, right?” She pulled away from the sink and hugged El. “Thank you… thank you for always being there, El.”

El smiled softly as she hugged her again. “That’s what best friends do. They’re there for each other.”

Max and El left the ladies room and returned to our lanes. Max told everyone what happened much to our shock, and El decided to call it a night. We got our shoes back and left the bowling alley, everyone at a loss for words. It was almost like Lucas had abandoned the party all over again, but this time, it felt more permanent. To be honest, I had kind of figured it was only a matter of time before this happened, but I had really hoped Lucas would come around before it got to this point. Any hope I had that Lucas would redeem himself died that night. He was dead to me. Dead to all of us.


	15. The New Normal

The next few weeks flew by fairly quickly. Everyone in the party got more involved in their individual activities, and the homework started piling on. Mike auditioned for the fall play _You Can’t Take it With You_ and got the role of Ed Carmichael. El had already played a fair share of tennis matches, none of which I had been able to attend because of cross country practice. While she did relatively well, many of her opponents were much more experienced and not even her doubles partner could always carry the slack. So overall her performance throughout her season so far was middling. Mike started not being able to attend her after school matches because of play rehearsals. AV Club finally started up for Will after they cancelled the first week’s sessions. The club decided to only meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays, which freed Will up a bit more. He would often attend everyone’s games and matches whenever he could, being just about the least busy out of all of us. Dustin was enjoying water polo, and his team had a winning record so far. Max and I had our first cross country meet on Thursday, August 29th. It was at home, so Will was able to catch the second half of it after AV Club finished up at 4:00.

Ms. Chung gave us our first test that covered our introductory unit on the basic building blocks of life, the scientific method, and measurement a week later, Thursday, September 5th, which I aced with Will’s help. We had studied together, of course. Max and Lucas, well obviously not. She opted to study with Dustin instead. Max wouldn’t even look Lucas in the eye during bio class and made all of us sit as far away from him as possible, not that I had any issue with that.

I gave it about a week or so before I asked her about their breakup. El warned me not to bring it up for a while because Max was still very touchy about the subject. By the time I brought it up, Max laughed it off. She told me what he had said, chuckling through it as if it was some kind of joke. The things she told me he said disgusted me, but Max told me to lighten up because none of it mattered anymore. I couldn’t help but agree.

El was having a decidedly hard time keeping up with the copious amounts of homework she was being given while also balancing tennis practice and matches, so Mike would spend whatever spare time he could on weeknights and even during the day on weekends tutoring her and helping her with her homework, making sure she didn’t fall behind. Mike was like the perfect boyfriend, always thinking of her needs before his own. I worried Mike would fall behind on his own homework, especially since play rehearsals kept him pretty busy as well, but he was incredibly smart and usually powered through his own homework quickly. It was a shame I didn’t see much of either of them anymore except during classes and lunch.

Dustin was still pining after Jennifer Hayes and had not made any moves as of yet, despite often being present when she would come over to us to chat with Will during nutrition. While she would always politely greet him, she was so focused on Will that Dustin found it difficult to redirect her attention toward him. At first Will tried his best to avoid Jennifer, but sometimes she would find him in the halls anyway, and he’d be roped into some conversation before he’d make up an excuse to leave or the bell would ring. He was never rude about it though. Somehow he always found a graceful exit out of their hallway conversations, and she’d smile and tell him she’d see him later, her cheeks rosy all the while. Eventually I noticed Will starting to warm up to her more, not avoiding her, but just taking their almost daily chats in stride.

All of us were so caught up in our after school activities and homework in the evenings that we barely had time to hang out. We had another D & D night the following weekend after Max broke up with Lucas, but not the weekend after that. Max, Jack and I had a Saturday cross country meet out of town, which completely drained me physically and mentally. Sunday I had to catch up on all my homework, and the rest of the party was busy with theirs as well. This was the new normal, I guess, all of us so busy with our own stuff that none of us have time for each other like we used to. Gone were the carefree school nights of middle school.

I made an effort to talk on the phone or on Supercom with Will as much as I could. Sometimes I’d just call to hear the sound of his voice and his gentle laugh. Studying was the only way my mom would let me hang out with him on a school night and even then, our time was limited to a couple of hours. I fought every urge to close our text books, put down our flash cards and make out with him. We hadn’t kissed at all since school started, much to my chagrin. There were either other people around, party or otherwise, or we were busy studying. Even though I saw him every day in school, always sat next to him at lunch, and talked to him on the phone often, I found myself missing him. It didn’t really make a lot of sense, but I couldn’t help but feel that way anyway. I wondered if he felt the same.

Monday, September 23th, we were in the middle of our unit on cells, which Ms. Chung briefly introduced us to the first day of school. She assigned us a lab where we used a microscope to look at animal, plant and bacterial cells and compare them. As always we were able to pick our lab partners, so of course I grouped up with Will, Max and Dustin. The period felt like it went by faster than normal because we were able to talk to each other almost the whole class as we did our lab.

After class, while Max ran off to find El and Mike, Dustin and I were once again subjected to Jennifer’s obvious flirtation with Will. Often, she’d giggle at things Will would say, even if they weren’t really funny at all. She’d also twirl her blond locks with her right index finger, especially when she realized she said something that made no sense whatsoever, and giggled nervously as she did so.

During their chat today Jennifer appeared even more nervous than normal. After a lull in their conversation, she started to ask Will something. “Hey, so um, you know that roller derby downtown?”

Will nodded.

“I was thinking, it could be fun to go together this weekend.” She suddenly started laughing nervously. “I’m sorry, I didn’t even ask if you like roller skating. Maybe you hate it and think it’s dumb.”

“No, don’t be sorry. That sounds like fun,” Will blurted out. Internally, I was cringing. _Did he really just agree to a date with her?  Stay calm, Robert, no one’s actually used the d-word yet._

“Does Saturday at 7 work? I can’t do Friday because of cheerleading, but you probably knew that already because I’m always boring you with cheerleading gossip.”

“Some of it’s pretty interesting,” Will assured her. “And yeah, Saturday works I guess.”

“It’s a date then!” Jennifer beamed. “Well, anyway I gotta go. Later guys!” she waved at us before skipping off. _Welp, the d-word was used. What the hell was Will thinking?_

Will just stood in place, his expression conveying a sense of regret.

Once she left, Dustin turned to Will. “I swear if I hear her say, ‘You’re so funny, Will,’ one more time I’m going to throw up.”

Will looked offended. “You don’t have to stick around if it bothers you that much.”

“In case you forgot, I’m the one who’s actually interested in Jennifer. Which makes me wonder why the hell you just agreed to a date with her? In front of your boyfriend no less?” Dustin shot back, glancing at me as he said, “boyfriend.”

“Keep your voice down!” Will scolded harshly, looking around to make sure no one overheard Dustin. He sighed. “She looked so nervous, I didn’t want to crush her.”

Dustin turned to me. “Robert, you can’t be ok with this, right?” he asked. Will’s hazel eyes stared at me as well, waiting for an answer.

“No, it’s fine. You and Jennifer will have fun. Let me know how it goes,” I said to Will in the fakest cheeriest way possible. “I’m gonna go catch up with the others. See you both at lunch.” I darted off to find Max, Mike and El. No way I was sticking around for that conversation any longer. All it did was infuriate me. What was he thinking? Agreeing to a date with her?

“He’s definitely mad at me,” Will observed remorsefully.

“No shit.”

“God, I’m so stupid,” Will beat himself up.

“You’re not stupid. Maybe stupidly nice, but not stupid,” Dustin reassured him.

“I should just tell her something came up,” Will suggested.

“We both know she’d just find another time. Don’t cancel. Maybe this can benefit both of us.”

“How so?”

“Remember when we were at the football game and Mike suggested you ask her out on a fake date?”

“Yeah, and it was a terrible idea.”

“Well, now you don’t have to ask her because she already did it for you. All you need to do is tell Jennifer the truth: that you just want to be friends. And like I suggested before, I’ll swoop in afterward and show her a good time, and she’ll forget all about you.”

“You really think that’s going to work?” Will doubted.

“No one can resist this!” he purred.

Will ignored Dustin’s always obnoxious purr. “Stacey Smith did.”

“Stacey Smith is a bitch, and you know it.”

“You’re not wrong. Jennifer doesn’t like her either. And they’re stuck in the same squad.”

“I know. I heard her too. Listen, Will. You have to go through with it. You owe it to her, to Robert and to me.”

“Ok fine, we’ll do your plan,” Will relented.

Dustin smiled. “Awesome! We need a codename for this operation. How about Operation: Skate and Switch?”

“Like bait and switch?”

“Exactly.”

“Sure. Just leave Robert out of it. I don’t want to drag him into this since he already seems pretty annoyed with me,” Will requested.

“Fine,” Dustin agreed.

They shook hands on it.  
______________________________________________________________________________

After my cross country practice, Max and I spotted Will waiting for me by the bike racks. He should have been long home by now. He didn’t even have AV Club today to keep him at school longer.

“I’ll give you two some space. Later, Robert.” Max walked off toward her bike, waving at Will before she departed. He smiled briefly and waved back.

I approached him. “Will, what are you doing here this late?” I asked, really hoping he wasn’t going to bring up what happened during nutrition.

“I wanted to talk to you about the roller derby thing,” Will explained himself. Of course, I thought to myself, not surprised at all.

“You mean your _date_?” I clarified for him. I put extra emphasis on the word “date” to make sure he knew exactly how annoyed I was by this whole thing.

“Yeah, that. Look, I know you’re mad at me for saying yes to her, but you have to realize this is hard for me too.”

“Oh is it? It’s hard for you to say no to going out with someone when you already have a boyfriend?” I asked sarcastically.

“It’s not like that! Jennifer and I are just friends. And I’m going to tell her that when we’re there. Dustin’s going to help me through it. Don’t worry.”

 _Dustin’s going to help him? What did he mean by that?_ I wondered. I took a deep breath. “Alright. Whatever. I don’t want to talk about it anymore.”

Will looked around to make sure no one else was around. All clear. He grabbed my hands and gazed into my eyes, seemingly not satisfied with me brushing it off. “I promise you, Robert, everything’s going to be fine.”

I allowed myself to crack a small smile. I couldn’t help it when Will gave me those eyes. “God damn it, Will. It’s too hard to stay angry at you when you look at me like that.”

He winked at me, the sly devil. He let go of my hands. “Wanna come over for dinner and work on our bio lab?”

“What about Dustin and Max?”

“We can invite them over too.”

“Your mom’s not going to wanna cook for that many people on short notice,” I pointed out.

“Then they can come after we eat.”

I hopped on my bike. Will followed suit, and the two of us biked over to his house. I really wanted to trust that everything would be fine like he said, but if he couldn’t brush her off in the school hallway, what makes him think he’s going to be able to say no to her when they’re alone on a date with all the added pressure that brings? I knew I needed to talk to Dustin. Perhaps he could help me feel better about this whole thing.  
______________________________________________________________________________

After Will and I ate his mom’s meatloaf and veggie dinner, Dustin and Max came over to work on the lab. I had phoned my mom as soon as I arrived at his house to let her know where I was.

The four of us gathered in Will’s bedroom to work on the lab writeup. Will sat at his desk while Max and I lay across his bed on top of his blue airplane comforter, our legs dangling off the bed toward the doorway and our heads facing his desk. Dustin paced around the room as his mind went to work. Will did the actual writing because his handwriting was the neatest out of all of ours. We cranked it out in an hour and a half. I was relieved we were staying on top of our biology homework so not all of my homework was left for the night before it was due. Max had to leave a little earlier than we finished it because she didn’t want to make her step-dad angry by being out super late.

After we finished our lab, Dustin and I said our goodbyes to Will. After Dustin walked outside, I lingered a little longer, Will and I sharing a hug, and he once again tried to assure me not to worry about Jennifer, a move that made me even more nervous about the whole thing. It was almost like he was trying to force himself to believe everything was going to be fine. I met Dustin outside, and we started to bike home.

I looked over at Dustin for a moment. He and Will had obviously continued the conversation about Will’s roller derby date with Jennifer after I had run off earlier today. I decided now was a good time to bring it up, with just the two of us biking and Will absent. “Will said something to me about how you were going to help him out with his fake date…” I shouted out to Dustin as we rode along the dark street, our bike lights lighting our path.

“He told me not to let you get involved,” Dustin replied, his eyes straight ahead on the road.

“In what? Are you planning something?”

“It’s…it’s nothing,” he tried to brush it off.

“Friends don’t lie, Dustin!”

“God damn it, Will, why did you let it slip to him if you didn’t want him involved?” Dustin muttered to himself shaking his head. He spoke louder. “He’s going to let me take over the date after he comes clean to her about just wanting to be friends. We’ve got this whole plan going. Operation: Skate and Switch,” he revealed.

I burst out laughing. I was a sucker for puns. “Catchy name!” I composed myself. “I want in.”

Dustin frowned. “I can’t. I promised him.”

“He won’t even know I’m there. I’ll do recon… be your eyes and ears. I’m the rogue, remember?”

Dustin stopped his bike in front of his house. I stopped mine as well. He sighed. “Fine, but you’ll have to be disguised and stay out of sight.”

“Of course. Thanks, man.”

“Sure. You’ll make my job easier. Say, why do you want to be there so badly anyway? I thought you were totally against this whole thing.”

“I just want to make sure things go as planned.”

“You don’t trust us?”

“It’s not you I’m worried about. You know Will’s honest to a fault. He revealed his dice roll to Mike that night right before he was captured by the demogorgon when he didn’t have to, but I’ve also never known him to knowingly hurt someone’s feelings with the truth if he can avoid it. Just make sure he stays on task. I know you must be counting on it.”

Dustin nodded. “I’ll do my best. See you tomorrow, Robert. We can discuss details and gear up on Saturday.”

“See you Dustin.” I continued down the street and headed home.


	16. Operation: Skate and Switch

“I thought the idea was for me to go unnoticed.”

I stood in front of my dresser mirror in my bedroom, sporting a fake mustache, an off-white floral Hawaiian shirt, and blue jeans. Behind me, Dustin surveyed my outfit, proud of his handiwork. It was Saturday, September 28th, the day of Will’s “date” with Jennifer Hayes. This week had been quite the slog, as I had anxiously awaited this day. The sooner it was behind me the better.

“It’s the roller derby. Everyone dresses loud. You’ll fit right in,” Dustin replied.

“I look like Tom Selleck from _Magnum, P.I._ ”

“Good, because that’s exactly what I was going for. By the way, your codename is Magnum.”

I scoffed. “What’s your codename?”

“Merman.”

“Of course it is,” I rolled my eyes. I sat down on my bed.

Dustin stood in front of me pacing back and forth a bit as he readied himself to explain the whole operation. “Ok, so here’s the plan: Will and Jennifer are going to meet up around 7 at the roller derby. You and I need to get there thirty minutes beforehand to scope out the place and make sure we know all the good hiding spots. Make sure you stay out of their sight when you’re skating. Try to stay behind them at all times. You’ll need to rent a locker while you’re there to store your Supercom. Every once in a while, report to me what’s going on between them. I’ll be listening on Channel C. Oh and if you get tired of skating, here are some binoculars, so you can keep track of any signs of flirtation between them.” He reached into his backpack and pulled out a pair of binoculars, handing them to me.

“These aren’t conspicuous at all,” I remarked sarcastically.

“But they’re useful. And fun,” Dustin smirked. He continued on. “If their date starts going too well, call me in, and I’ll do my thing. When Will drops the truth bomb on Jennifer, he’s going to give me a signal to swoop in and start talking her up. Once that happens, you’re free to go.”

“How was this supposed to go before I got involved?”

“I would have been Magnum and ditched the ‘stache once Will gave me the signal.”

“Wait, is Will expecting you to be Magnum? Wouldn’t he get confused if he sees someone in the costume that’s not you?”

“No, he doesn’t know about the Magnum costume. All I told him is I’d be watching but he wouldn’t see me until he gave the signal.”

I took off the fake mustache and we went back downstairs toward the front door.

“Anything else I need to know?”

“No, just remember to…”

“Stay out of their sight, I know,” I finished his sentence.

Dustin patted my back. “Awesome. I’ll see you at 6:30.”

“See you then.”

I opened the door for Dustin, and he walked out. I closed the door behind him. Dustin seemed so confident this plan would work. He had it all thought out. Maybe I was getting worried for nothing. I really wanted to tell Mike about this plan, see if he had any suggestions or advice, since I knew how much he loved operations like this, but I didn’t want to risk my involvement somehow slipping to Will. While Mike was good at keeping secrets, he and Will were as thick as thieves, and I knew Will had his ways of making Mike talk. I decided I would tell him all about it afterward when hopefully everything worked out as planned. _Robert Magnum, P.I._ , I thought to myself with a smirk. _This is going to be an interesting evening._  
______________________________________________________________________________

Around 6:15, Dustin and I biked over to the roller derby together after he had talked to Will one more time over Supercom confirming their plan, obviously leaving out anything about my involvement. Dustin had styled his hair with his prized Farrah Fawcett hair spray the same way as he had the night of the Snowball last year. He was wearing a bluish purple button down shirt tucked into khaki pants. On the way over, I panicked that my fake mustache might fall off while biking, and I found myself repeatedly pushing it onto my face to ensure it would stick, taking a hand off my bike handle to do so.

We walked inside. It was loud…in every way. The music, the outfits, the people. There was no way I would be able to hear anything Will and Jennifer said without being right next to them, so I would have to rely on visual cues. Maybe those binoculars would come in handy after all. The house lights were off, a large disco ball in the middle of the derby floor acting as the largest light source, as it reflected spots of light all around the venue. The disco ball and the moving flashes of colored light from other fixtures created an exciting atmosphere. It was a sight to behold. I wished more than anything that I was here on a date with Will instead of spying on his fake one with Jennifer.

Dustin and I walked around a bit, scoping out the various points of interest. There was a snack counter, restrooms, a seating area, and lockers all on the close side of the rink. The far side of the rink was directly against a wall. “Alright I’ll leave you to it,” Dustin said after we finished scouting. “Good luck. Stay in touch.”

“Thanks. Will do,” I replied.

He walked out. I headed toward the front counter to rent skates and a locker. I deepened my voice a bit to sound older. The twenty-something guy behind the counter gave me a funny look, but accepted my money anyway. Who was he to judge if I was a paying customer? I grabbed the locker key and skates off the counter and headed over to my designated locker. After I opened it, I unzipped my backpack and took out my Supercom.

Pressing the talk button, I spoke into it. “Come in, Merman. This is Magnum. I’ve acquired skates and a locker. No sign of Will or Jennifer yet. Over.”

“I read you, Magnum. Start skating for now. You’ll be harder to spot on the move in case one of them walks in. Over and out,” Dustin advised.

I put the Supercom in the locker along with my backpack and sneakers. After lacing up my skates, I stepped slowly and carefully toward the entry area of the rink, doing about five laps or so before my eyes landed on two figures by the front entrance. There they were: Will and Jennifer walking side by side. “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears was playing on the loudspeakers. I looked at my watch. 7:00pm sharp. Right on time.

Will was wearing a navy blue polo shirt with white sleeves and a red collar, denim shorts that cutoff mid thigh, and high white socks with light blue stripes going around at the top. He looked so adorable, and then of course there was me looking like a dork wearing a fake Tom Selleck mustache and a Hawaiian shirt. Jennifer was wearing a loose fitting white sweater with various brightly colored geometric shapes, a denim skirt, and flamingo pink leggings.

I watched them as they went over to the counter to grab skates, trying to get a read on Will’s facial expression. His back was turned to me, so I waited until they were done. It was a lot harder to skate and spy than I thought because I had to make sure I was paying enough attention to where I was going so I didn’t knock anyone over.

After a few minutes they started skating. I made sure to hide myself amongst a crowd of skaters to avoid them spotting me as they entered. I skated about fifteen feet behind them, keeping an eye on them as often as I could. So far, neither of them had noticed me. It didn’t really hit me until I was doing it, but spying on my boyfriend like this felt so wrong. I started to feel a knot forming in my stomach. _What am I even doing here?_ I asked myself. _They’re just friends. He’s allowed to hang out with other people. Maybe I should just leave and give Dustin the costume._

I slipped out of the rink and made my way back to the locker. I pulled out the Supercom and radioed Dustin. “Merman, this is Magnum. Do you copy? Over.”

“Loud and clear, Magnum. What’s happening? Over,” Dustin’s voice came through.

“So far they’re just skating and chatting, but I can’t hear anything they’re saying. It’s too loud.” I took a breath. “Dustin…”

“It’s Merman. You have to use the codenames. Over,” Dustin interrupted.

I rolled my eyes. “Fine. _Merman_ , I don’t know if I can do this. It feels wrong. Over.”

“Hey, you _begged_ me to participate, despite Will specifically asking you not to. Besides, you’re already in too deep. We can’t switch out the costume now. It’d be too obvious. Over.”

“You’re right. Maybe I’ll take a break from skating for a bit. See what I can spot with the binoculars. Over.”

“That’s the spirit! Now go before you miss something. Over and out.”

I sighed and set the Supercom down on the bench before grabbing my backpack and pulling out the binoculars. I put my now empty backpack away. While I waited until there was no one nearby, I kicked off my skates and put them in my locker. Once the locker area was clear, I crawled to the farthest right corner of the four foot wall running along the perimeter of the rink, my Supercom in tow. Placing it on the floor to the left side of me, I stood on my knees and peeked through the binoculars, my socked feet out behind me. I didn’t waste time putting my shoes back on.

“Out of Touch,” by Hall and Oates was playing as I searched for the pair amongst the crowd of skaters, but once I did, I kept my focus on them. Jennifer was all smiles. Will not quite as much but he would smile and laugh every now and then. He seemed to crack a few jokes based on Jennifer’s reactions.

I continued watching them as they took a break from going around in circles and went into the middle of the derby floor. At one point while the pair was chatting, Will’s smile faded, and his eyebrows furrowed as he looked away from Jennifer, all of his usual signs indicating he was conflicted about something. He was probably trying to find a good opening to tell Jennifer the truth. Dustin was right, it was definitely easier to read the situation with these binoculars. Suddenly Will turned right toward my direction. _Shit!_ I thought as I quickly ducked down behind the wall.

Standing on the derby floor, Will looked over at the corner where I had been spying. Seeing nothing, he shrugged it off and continued listening to Jennifer tell him about her recent Madonna obsession.

With my back leaning against the wall, I sighed with relief when enough time had passed that I was sure Will wasn’t going to skate over to discover me sitting here on the floor. I picked up my Supercom and radioed Dustin again.

“Magnum to Merman, come in. Over.”

“Still here, Magnum. What’s your status? Over.”

“Will almost caught me, but I think I’m safe, for now. Nothing’s really happening, although Will did look a bit conflicted at one point, which means he almost certainly hasn’t said anything yet. Over.”

“Hmm, this is going slower than I’d hoped. I think it’s time for the Merman to swim in a bit sooner. Over and out.”

Setting the Supercom back down, I peeked over the wall using just my naked eyes this time in an attempt to be less conspicuous. Will and Jennifer were skating again. I waited for them to have their backs to me before standing up and walking back to my locker. Putting everything else away, I laced my skates back up and slipped back out onto the derby floor without the pair noticing.

As I skated around I noticed Dustin renting a pair of skates at the counter. I watched as he went from the counter to the lockers and put his backpack with his Supercom inside a locker. Soon enough his skates were laced up, and he stepped inside the rink and went straight over to Will and Jennifer.

“Hey! No way! You guys are here too?” Dustin greeted them with his that infectious grin of his. The three of them moved toward the middle so they wouldn’t get in anyone’s way.

Will was shocked to see him earlier than expected and looked quite irritated, but Jennifer smiled politely, completely unaware of Dustin’s subterfuge. “Dustin! Wasn’t expecting to see you here.”

“Yeah, what a coincidence,” Will said through gritted teeth.

Jennifer admired Dustin’s hairdo for a moment. “I like your hair.”

“Thanks!” Dustin beamed, ignoring Will’s comment.

“Hey, umm, I know you’re pretty busy with waterpolo, so you might have forgotten, but Will and I are actually on a date right now,” Jennifer reminded him awkwardly.

“Oh my god, that was tonight?” Dustin asked, feigning ignorance. “Wow, umm, this is really embarrassing. See, I just so happened to be in the neighborhood walking by when I stumbled upon this place. Now, I’ve roller skated before. I played a little bit of street hockey when I was younger… got some gear at home in my closet. But somehow I’ve never had a chance to come here to the roller derby: the Mecca of roller skating. All the fancy lights, the crazy outfits, the boisterous crowds, the cool music. So when I saw the sign outside, I knew this had to be the next stop on my curiosity voyage. In the back of my mind, the idea _kind_ of sounded familiar, like maybe I had thought of it before, but I wasn’t sure why. Of course now with you reminding me of your guys’ date… I’m sorry. I’ll get out of your hair.”

Will rolled his eyes at Dustin’s theatrics.

“It’s ok. Since you’re here, you wanna skate with us for a bit?” she asked cheerily.

“Yeah, that’d be great,” Dustin smirked. Internally he was jumping with joy that Jennifer had asked him to skate with her.

“Dustin, can I talk to you, privately?” Will requested with an annoyed tone.

“Excuse us for a minute,” Dustin smiled at Jennifer as Will grabbed him by the arm and started to pull him away. She looked totally confused but silently gave them permission to leave.

The two boys stepped out of the rink, standing near the snack counter.

“What the hell are you doing?” Will demanded to know.

“I’m taking matters into my own hands because you’re not doing what we discussed,” Dustin answered.

“I’ve got this under control. I don’t need your help.”

“It’s her I’m trying to help, not you. Gotta get her attention off of you somehow.”

“Just stay away until I drop a coin in the tip jar like we agreed,” Will insisted.

“Fine. But you better get it over with quickly. The longer you wait the harder it’s going to get.”

Dustin stayed behind as Will went back to Jennifer.

“Dustin’s going to grab a snack. He said he might skate with us later, but I think he was pretty embarrassed,” Will lied to her.

“Oh no, I didn’t mean to make him feel bad,” Jennifer said remorsefully.

“He’ll be ok,” Will assured her.

Seeing my opportunity to rendezvous with Dustin, I exited the rink and made my way over to him.

“Not here. I can’t be seen with you,” Dustin reminded me.

“Go to the lockers and sit on the floor over there in the corner.” I pointed at the corner I had used earlier to spy on Will and Jennifer. “They won’t see us there.”

Dustin nodded and sat in the corner. I joined him shortly thereafter. We started taking off our skates.

“So what happened?” I asked.

“I was almost going to skate with them, put the pressure on Will, you know? But he shooed me away. Said he didn’t need my help.” His blue eyes darted around searching for something. “Where are those binoculars at?”

“In my locker. I’ll get them.” I got up and cleared out my locker, deciding to end my locker rental and my skating session. Now that they knew Dustin was here, there wasn’t any reason for me to follow them around on the derby floor anymore. I reached into my backpack, grabbed the binoculars and handed them to Dustin.

“You can go home if you want. I can take it from here,” Dustin offered.

“I’ve been here long enough. I want to see it through,” I reaffirmed as I put my sneakers back on.

“Fine by me.”

The song “Flashdance…What a Feeling” from the movie _Flashdance_ was playing as Dustin and I watched Jennifer take Will by the hand to the middle of the rink. Her animated expression and movement gave away her excitement over the current song.

“Robert, look. Something’s happening,” Dustin announced, the binoculars pressed up against his face as the two of us watched Will’s hand slip away from Jennifer’s. Will looked at her with a serious expression. “I think he’s finally going to say it.”

I started to feel a sense of relief. This stupid night would be over soon.

In the middle of the rink, Jennifer gazed into Will’s eyes as they stood close together, Will looking nervous as hell.

“Jennifer, I, umm…I don’t know how to say this but…” Will started to say.

Before he could finish his sentence, she kissed him on the lips.


	17. The Two Mothers

I stared in horror at Jennifer locking lips with my boyfriend. Time slowed down to a standstill, and everything else blurred into obscurity as I tunnel visioned onto the pair. My head started to hurt as my eyes got watery and my lip quivered.

As Will separated himself from Jennifer, he noticed out of the corner of his eye Dustin glaring at him and me on the verge of tears. Our eyes met for a couple of seconds, and he saw the hurt painted across my face. Realizing I had been there all along and saw everything, Will started to panic.

Not able to bear looking at him any longer, I ripped off my fake mustache and handed it to Dustin before grabbing my backpack and storming off as fast as I could. I needed air and to get as far away from Will as I could.

“I’m sorry… I shouldn’t have assumed you were ready for that yet,” Jennifer apologized, noticing Will looked uncomfortable.

“Jennifer, I have to go. I’m really sorry,” Will told her brusquely, skating away from her in a hurry without allowing her to respond.

“Will, wait!” Jennifer called out to no avail.

Will exited the rink. Dustin confronted him at the entry gap. “Nice going, Will,” he huffed.

“You brought Robert along? After I specifically asked you not to?” Will questioned him angrily.

“He would have shown up even if I refused, so yeah, I brought him along. And he played his part. You on the other hand…”

“I was just about to tell her, and then she…”

“She kissed you, yeah I saw what happened,” Dustin cut him off.

“I have to talk to Robert. I’m sorry, Dustin. I’ll make it up to you, I promise,” Will apologized.

“Don’t bother. You’ve screwed things up enough,” Dustin snapped. He stomped off out of the venue, heading home.  
______________________________________________________________________________

I hopped on my bike, turned on the bike light and started peddling as fast as I could away from the roller derby. As I headed home, my racing thoughts swirled around in my head. _What the hell was wrong with him? How could he let her kiss him? Why didn’t he tell her the truth? Or is the truth not actually the truth after all? What if he really does like her and was lying to me this whole time?_ My head swelled with pain. I hadn’t felt this much heartache and hurt since Will lashed out at me inside El’s vision. At least then he had the excuse that he was under the shadow man’s control. He couldn’t say that now.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Will looked extremely hurt by Dustin’s scathing final remark, but he shrugged it off as he reminded himself he needed to catch up with me. He pulled off his skates and got his shoes back from the front counter. He hadn’t bothered with a locker and had instead traded his shoes for skates. Once he finished tying his shoes, Jennifer approached him.

“Will, can we talk about what happened?” Jennifer pleaded.

“I can’t. Not now,” Will answered curtly. He ran out of the building, leaving a confused and disappointed Jennifer behind for the third and final time that evening.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Joyce Byers opened her front door. My mom was standing on the other side of the doorway, the ends of her teased slightly longer than shoulder-length brown hair resting against her white button-down blouse. She was also wearing a high-waisted navy skirt with a belt, dark stockings and black strapped sandals.

“Don’t they say you’re not supposed to wear white after Labor Day?” Joyce joked nervously.

My mom chuckled lightly. “Cheeky. Some things never change.” Her smile faded. “Sorry I’m a little overdressed, I just finished up a dinner party with Mayor Kline and some of the city council members, and I didn’t have time to go home and change into something a little more cozy. You know how these parties get. Always running late.”

Joyce nodded. “Of course,” she replied, although she didn’t really have any firsthand experience with dinner parties with important people. Joyce lived a more quiet and isolated existence. Her life revolved around her two sons and working at Melvald’s, where her interactions with customers were limited to brief greetings and thank you’s, with the occasional check-in on some of the regulars in the store. Besides that, other than the occasional chat with Karen Wheeler or the on-again-off-again fling she’s had with Chief Jim Hopper since last winter, she didn’t really interact with many people her age. Bob Newby’s death last year had scarred her deeply. Ever since she found it harder to try to make meaningful connections with anyone new, for fear she’d lose them just like she did Bob. An awkward silence followed with the two mothers silently standing on either side of the doorway. “Uhh…come in,” Joyce offered motioning for my mom to enter her home.

My mom’s lips curled into a small smile as she stepped into the Byers residence, amused by Joyce’s awkwardness.

Joyce led her to the kitchen. My mom sat down at the kitchen table while Joyce brewed some coffee. “So you still, uh, working at that land development firm, Howard and Sons?”

“Yes, I actually run it now. Larry Howard retired a few years back and handed the reigns over to me, since his children decided to pursue other ventures away from Hawkins. Thought about changing the name of the company to something less… patriarchal, but decided it was only fair to honor the family that gave me the opportunities that have landed me where I am today.”

“Wow, that sounds like a huge responsibility,” Joyce commented.

“It is. But I enjoy it greatly,” Linda replied in a matter of fact way.

“I saw your name in the paper a few months back. When that new mall opened up.”

My mom beamed. “The _Hawkins Post_ wanted the scoop on the Starcourt Mall, and who better to ask than the woman who made it happen?”

“That was your doing?” Joyce looked down at her, astonished.

“My pride and joy,” my mom sighed. “You have no idea how long I’ve been fighting for some modernization in this town. And now, at least we know where our kids will be spending their free time. Better there than the woods, considering what happened to your son, and then of course there was that Department of Energy disaster almost a year ago. God, what a mess that was.”

 _You have no idea_ , Joyce thought smugly to herself. “Yeah, thank God they’re gone.” She poured some hot coffee into mugs for each of them and brought them over to the table. She handed my mom a mug and sat down at the end chair next to my mom’s chair.

“I’m so happy you came over, Linda. We’ve had so many little conversations on the phone over the years arranging our sons’ playdates or ‘hanging out,’ as they like to call it now, but somehow we’ve haven’t really had a chance to sit down and chat like this,” Joyce said. “At least not since they were really little.”

Linda smiled. “Me too.” She paused, thinking about something. “Hey, if you’re looking for more company, why don’t you join us tomorrow at Karen’s book club? A group of us ladies read a book every month or so and hold discussions on Sunday afternoons. I’m sure Karen would welcome you with open arms if you wanted to join in. Claudia’s in it too.”

Joyce looked a bit uncomfortable. She always felt awkward around my friend’s parents considering her reputation in high school as a teenage rebel hanging around with Jim Hopper smoking under the bleachers. Even though Karen had warmed up to her over the years from their sons being so close, Joyce never felt like her peers had shook off their impressions of her from all those years ago. She knew behind their pleasant smiles and greetings, they hid their condescending thoughts: Joyce the crazed maverick, Joyce the frazzled neurotic mess whose husband abandoned her and her kids. Joyce shook her head. “Thanks, but bookclubs aren’t really my thing. Besides, I barely even have time to sit down and watch TV between taking care of Will and Jonathan and my shifts at Melvald’s.”

Linda nodded. “I know the struggle. That balance between career and single motherhood. My work keeps me late often, and I’m not always around to take care of Robert as much as I would want to. Fortunately, he seems to be able to fend for himself pretty well. He never complains when I tell him I won’t be home until after dinnertime. He’s very self-sufficient, a skill I believe everyone needs be taught one way or another. Look at us. Two single mothers doing our best. I was never one to rely on my ex-husband, or any man for that matter. I always believed if you want to be successful in this world, you have to earn that yourself. Something Calvin never learned.” Her last sentence was tinged by a spiteful hatred of her ex-husband that rarely came out at home let alone in polite company. She sighed. “Do your boys ever see Lonnie?”

“No. Not after his stint at Will’s funeral. All the bastard cared about was trying to collect insurance money. Jonathan… he hates Lonnie’s guts. Will hasn’t expressed any interest in visiting him, and I’m not about to put the idea in his mind.”

“Husbands, who needs ‘em?” Linda cracked a smile.

“I’ll drink to that,” Joyce held up her mug to toast. Linda raised her mug and clinked Joyce’s. Both mothers sipped their coffee, which was starting to get a bit cold by this point.

“You know Robert never stops talking about Will. It’s funny. A little while back, I found the two of them having a picnic in my backyard. I didn’t know boys that age still did things like that, but it was cute.”

“Will’s the same way about Robert. He’s always telling me about how much fun he has with him. Everyday is an adventure with Robert, he told me once. Those two… they’re inseparable. Recently, though, I’ve noticed Will’s been a little off. I think it has something to do with school and how busy it’s made the two of them now. I know Robert’s also got his hands full with cross country, and because of that Will doesn’t get to see him quite as much. It bothers him. I know it, even though he hasn’t actually said so. And you know how the kids are in school. They tease and bully anyone that’s different. Even though Will sees Robert in school every day, it’s got to be hard on both of them being around each other but unable to really be themselves, because the last thing they’d want is everyone making fun of them for dating.”

Linda almost spat out the now lukewarm coffee she was sipping, but put a hand up to her mouth and gulped it. “Excuse me, did you say our sons are ‘dating?’” She lingered on that last word like it was too vile to say out loud.

Feeling extremely awkward in this moment for unwittingly outing me to my mom, Joyce fidgeted with her mug. “I… umm… I guess I just assumed Robert had already told you. They’ve been dating since early July,” she admitted apprehensively.

“Is that so?” Linda raised an eyebrow. Joyce nodded nervously, still unsure how she was taking the news. My mom pushed her mug a few inches away from her, pulled out her chair and stood up. “Well, thanks for the coffee, Joyce, but I better get home,” Linda said coldly. She started toward the front door at the other end of the hallway.

“Please don’t go hard on him, Linda,” Joyce begged, following her. “Your son’s a great kid. He’s been nothing but kind to Will.”

Linda turned around once she reached the door. “I know he is,” she said curtly. “But he’s obviously very confused.”

Her word choice bothered Joyce to her core. “Confused? Confused?! They’re in love, Linda. I see the way they look at each other every time your son is over at my house. There’s nothing ‘confusing' about it,” Joyce asserted.

Linda scowled. “They’re kids. What do they know about love? Robert’s obviously mistaking close friendship with something far more insidious. I will not have my son running around like a queer and endangering himself and his friends. It seems clear to me now that I’ve been keeping Robert on too long of a leash. I don’t pretend to know exactly how Will’s trauma from when he went missing has affected him long term, but it sounds like he might need more help than you’re giving him.”

Joyce exploded. “How _dare_ you waltz into _my_ home and criticize my parenting of Will!” She wagged a finger at Linda. “He’s perfect just the way he is! He doesn’t need ‘help.’ He needs the love and support of his family and friends. Maybe if you spent more time actually being a mom instead of obsessing over building shopping malls and cozying up with all the sleazy politicians in town, you wouldn’t be so in the dark about your own son! Their love for each other…. it’s real, Linda, and it’s your job as his mother to prepare him to face the world as he is, not as some idealized version of him you want him to be!”

Astonished by Joyce’s brazen counterattack, Linda decided it was time to let herself out. As a woman with influence in town and someone who held a high opinion of herself, she believed she was above such openly hostile fighting and therefore restrained herself from stooping to Joyce’s level and lashing out at her. “I don’t have to stand here and take this crap from you. Good night, Joyce,” she said curtly. She walked out shutting the door behind her.

Joyce stood tense about eight feet from the door, her body shaking a bit in anger. She quickly stepped toward the door and kicked it with her right foot. “BITCH!!!” she screamed as my mom pulled away from the Byers’ home. Joyce hobbled over to her couch and sat down, holding her foot, which was now throbbing in pain. Her eyes started to get watery as she stared out the window, lamenting the failure of this get-together.  
______________________________________________________________________________

I parked my bike on the side of my house and ran inside. On the way home I had started feeling nauseated thinking about what just happened at the roller derby and was desperate to get to my bathroom so I could throw up. I ran up the stairs and thrust the bathroom door open, collapsing to the floor. Before I knew it I was praying to the porcelain god. After about a minute or so of heaving, my stomach was empty, and I flushed the contents away. I hated that this was my response to stress. Some people overeat when they’re nervous. I was one of those people that instead completely loses their appetite and even just the smell of food could make me gag. Will was well aware of my condition and sometimes would sit with me in the bathroom, helping me through it. He’d do his best to calm me down, make me feel better about whatever was stressing me out. I loved him for that. Right now, however, the last person I wanted to see was Will. Not after what he did, or rather didn’t do.

I rinsed out my mouth with some mouthwash to get rid of the taste of stomach acid and my regurgitated dinner. Once I was done cleaning myself up, I trudged into my bedroom, where I planned to spend the rest of the evening.

 _Ding-dong!_ I heard the doorbell ring. I started to get that butterflies in my stomach feeling. _Please don’t be Will. Please don’t be Will,_ I thought. I slowly stepped down the stairs, really not eager to talk to anyone right now, let alone Will.

Eventually I reached the front door. “Robert, I know you’re there! Please open the door!” I heard Will call out from the other side of the door. _Of course it was him. Who else would it be?_

I opened the door to a frantic Will. “What do you want?” I groaned.

“Can we talk?” Will asked.

I silently motioned for him to come inside. There was no use protesting because I knew he wouldn’t leave for anything. We sat down in the living room.

There was a long silence before Will finally spoke. “That kiss. It wasn’t what you think it was. I didn’t kiss her back! I didn’t even want it!” He paused for a moment. “You weren’t even supposed to be there.”

“Why? So that you could go on lying to me that everything’s going to be fine and go on more dates with her behind my back?” I questioned him.

“No! I didn’t want you to feel jealous over nothing. I was about to tell her I just wanted to be friends right before she kissed me!” he explained.

“But you didn’t. You didn’t tell her. Even before this stupid date, you had so many opportunities to do it. So why haven’t you?”

“I told you I was scared to hurt her feelings,” Will replied.

I scoffed. “Bullshit. You’re not telling me the truth. I think you care about her more than you let on.”

“She makes me feel normal! Is that what you want me to say?!” Will blurted out unexpectedly.

I stared at him for a moment, confused what he meant by that. “What are you talking about?”

“When I’m with her, it’s easier to pretend I’m not gay. People won’t be suspicious of us if they think Jennifer and I are together. I don’t actually want to date her, but I like having her as a friend.”

“So you’re using her as your beard?” I accused him.

“Why do you have to word it so harshly? It’s not like I don’t care about her.”

“Because it’s true. She doesn’t deserve to be lied to. Neither does Dustin. Neither do I.”

“I didn’t mean for it to go this far,” Will bemoaned.

“I can’t believe after everything we’ve been through, you’re still this insecure about our relationship. Hiding it during school? Sure, I get it. But giving yourself a fake girlfriend because the closet you’ve kept us in wasn’t deep enough for you already? Do you have any idea how it felt watching her kiss you at the roller derby? After we haven’t even kissed once since school started?” I sighed. “You’re so good at hiding your feelings for me that honestly your fake relationship with Jennifer seems a lot more real than ours at this point.”

“It’s not real! I’m _your_ boyfriend. Not hers,” he insisted.

I knew now was the time to get everything out that I had been holding in about this whole issue concerning whether we should hide or relationship or not. I had attempted to convince him a month ago that we didn’t need to, but after this whole Jennifer fiasco and Will’s poor handling of it, things had never looked worse between us. I couldn’t let this issue slide anymore. “Every day, when we’re in school, when we’re studying at your place or mine, when we’re hanging out with the party, I have to sit there and pretend you’re just my friend, nothing more. At least before we discovered we were in love with each other it was easier. It was comfortable because it was all we knew. But now, now it’s torture. We don’t kiss each other. We barely hug. We don’t even look at each other the same way anymore. And I do it for you, because you don’t want people to find out about us, but it’s all we ever do now. We hide our feelings, even from each other. Isn’t that agonizing for you? How can you stand it? How can you stand pretending we’re only just friends, even after we’ve been intimate?”

“It is hard, but it’s a lot easier to just not do couples stuff at all right now than to have to constantly watch our backs every time we want to do any of that,” Will defended his decision.

“I’m sick and tired of hiding our relationship, Will. It isn’t healthy, and I refuse to do it any longer,” I declared, finally deciding to draw my line in the sand.

Will shook his head. “I already told you before school started I’m not going to back down on this!” He sighed. “What we had over the summer… I’ve never been happier. It’s everything I’ve ever dreamed of. But that’s what it was: a dream. A fantasy that will hopefully be down the road for us once we get out of Hawkins. But it’s not reality. Our lives right now, as students at Hawkins High, blending in and not drawing attention to ourselves: that’s reality. That’s how things have to be. Because no one at school will accept us as we really are. Not with Todd and his goons roaming the halls of Hawkins High. I love you, Robert, but you have to understand that things have stay the way they are now, for our sakes.”

Will describing the best summer of my life like it was some big lie enraged me. “Is that all our summer together was to you? Some dream that you’ve now woken up from? This right now… this hiding, this isn’t reality. It’s a nightmare, one we can easily put an end to if you’d just listen to me. We have people around us that will protect us. We can deal with the blowback,” I maintained.

“What people?!” Will scoffed. “El? She promised to never use her powers on other people, no matter what. You know that. I’m pretty sure Dustin hates me now, so I doubt we’ll be seeing him around at lunch anymore. Lucas abandoned us, and as much as Mike would like to think he can defend us, he’s a twig. Look around, Robert. Our party’s falling apart. There isn’t much of anyone left to protect us.”

“What about Hopper? He can scare them off. Force them to leave us alone.”

“If someone’s really determined to hurt us, they won’t care about the threats of some grizzled sheriff.”

“If it really comes down to it, we can defend ourselves! We’ve fought against way worse and won!”

“We had El's superpowers! What do we have now? Neither of us would last long against someone like Todd or Billy.” He took a breath. “I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to live in constant fear that someone’s going to hurt us just for being who we are. If it means we have to wait, then so be it.”

“Maybe it’s easy for you to flip a switch and pretend everything’s the way it used to be before that day we confessed our feelings for each other, but I can’t do that. I’ve tried, for a whole month, even though it was the last thing I ever wanted to do.” I was growing quite exasperated with Will at this point.

“You think I want to do this? Of course I don’t! But there’s no other choice. As much as I hate to say it, Lucas was right. We should have just listened to him instead of driving him away. Maybe the party would still be together.”

“There’s always a choice!” I roared at him, furious that he would even consider Lucas being right about any of this. “So that’s it then? You’re not going to change your mind? No matter how much pain this causes us?” I asked, trembling.

Will couldn’t look at me in the eyes. He shook his head. “I’m sorry.”

The tears from earlier were returning. I was at the end of my rope. “You obviously don’t value our relationship as much as I do, so maybe we shouldn’t even bother with it at all.”

Filled with dread, Will stiffened. “W-what are you saying?”

“I’m saying I don’t think I can continue being your boyfriend, friend or whatever it is we are now if this is how things are going to be between us,” I sniffled.

Will started tearing up. “Robert! Don’t do this.”

“Please, just go home,” I said softly, avoiding eye contact with him.

“I’ll tell Jennifer I just want to be friends on Monday first thing at nutrition!” he tried to bargain. “I won’t go on any more dates with her, I promise!”

He didn’t get it! That wasn’t the point. His continued fixation on Jennifer and his belief that solving things between them would somehow fix our actual relationship problems made me explode. “Your promises mean nothing to me! You promised you’d tell her before but you didn’t! You promised you didn’t care what other people thought about us anymore when we were in El’s mind, but that’s totally not true! No, the truth is you think the world’s out to get you because you happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time one night two years ago, and now you’d rather hide from it than give happiness a try because being happy scares you. You don’t think you deserve it. You know what? I take back what I said about you being the bravest person I know. You’re nothing but a coward, Will! Just… STAY THE HELL AWAY FROM ME! I DON’T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU ANYMORE!” I unleashed all my pent up rage at him. I had never said anything so harsh to him in my life and certainly not with that nasty of a tone, but I really wanted him gone. Being around him was way too painful.

The devastation on Will’s face in that moment was completely heartbreaking, and I wished more than anything I could forget it, but of course it was burned into my mind forever. My eyes betrayed the sadness behind my anger, and I knew Will could see it as our eyes locked onto each other for a few seconds right before he turned away and fled my house in tears. Once he slammed the door behind him, I ran upstairs to my room, collapsed on my bed, and buried my head in a pillow. My muffled moans filled the room and my pillowcase quickly became soaked with tears.

I heard the front door open again. My mom had come home. On her way upstairs, I could hear the loud stomp of her heeled sandals hitting each step. She knocked on my door.

“Robert, I was just over at the Byers’, and Joyce had some very interesting things to say…” She stopped as she heard my loud sobs from the other side of the door.

“Honey, what’s wrong?” she asked. Not getting a reply, she opened the door to my room and sat down on my bed next to my curled up body. She stroked my hair. “Why are you crying?” I didn’t respond. What was I supposed to say? I had never told her about Will and me, and it didn’t seem like it was worth it now. “Joyce told me you and Will have been dating since July. Is that true?”

I looked up at her, shocked she had found out. My eyes were red from crying so much. “Yes,” I whimpered. “But it doesn’t matter now. I ended it.”

Hearing this surprised her. “Maybe… maybe that’s for the better. That kid has so many unresolved issues, and I don’t think his mother is doing enough for him. I have to admit I don’t think I’ve been doing enough for you either. You’ve obviously been very confused for a while now, but it seems like you’re at least taking a step in the right direction.”

Holding my upper body up with my fists, I recoiled from her in disgust, my back pushing up against my headboard. “I wasn’t confused! I loved him!” I yelled at her. “I knew it! I knew it was a bad idea to tell you! Of course you wouldn’t understand! Your view of love is so fucked up, that’s why you’re not married anymore!”

My mom stood up and glared at me. “Don’t ever speak to me like that!” she hissed. “Your father was a pathetic free loader who never loved anything except money.”

“Go away! I wanna be alone!” I snapped.

“We’re not done here, Robert.”

“GO AWAY!!!!” I screamed. Alarmed, she left my room in a hurry, closing the door behind her. I had never screamed at her like that in my life, but I was hardly myself tonight. I took my pillow and screamed some more into it, until I couldn’t anymore. Exhausted, I threw my pillow behind me, got up and put a Joy Division 7-inch single on my record player. The song “Atmosphere” came on. I crashed down on my bed and stared up at the ceiling, the room lit by the soft yellow glow of my table lamps and the bluish moonlight through my window. I turned to my right nightstand, where I had the framed photo of Will I took during our picnic. I grabbed it, and gazed at it for a bit. He looked so happy. My mind wandered to my vision back in the mansion when I saw him in the stands at that baseball game. He had the exact same grin then too. Suddenly I heard the shadow man’s voice in my head. “You have to win the game if you want him to come back, but you’ll never truly win. You’ll keep trying and trying. Doing whatever it takes to make him accept you, but it won’t be enough.” Those words had haunted me before, and I thought I had escaped from them when Will and I had gotten together and defeated the shadow man. But now the creeping realization hit me that they were never his words, they were my own. He or it had just vocalized what I already believed deep down. No matter what, he would never accept me. Not fully at least. I was just some dream he tried to cling onto but he knew would never make sense in reality. He didn’t believe our relationship could stand against adversity. Stronger together? Yeah, right. Not able to bear looking at the photo any longer I threw it across the room in anger, breaking the glass on the frame. I got up and went over to the wall with the drawing of me Will had labored for hours on. I tore it off the wall, being careful not to rip it. I didn’t want to wreck it. It was a nice picture. I just didn’t want it visible. I took down any evidence of our friendship I could find in my room and stuffed it under my bed. When I was done, I sat at the edge of my bed, as my eyes wandered around my emptier feeling room. A torrent of tears came as I began to fully process what a life without Will was going to be like: empty, just like the walls and my nightstands.  
______________________________________________________________________________

A misty-eyed Will pulled the sheet covering the entrance to Castle Byers up and stepped inside. Just a couple of years ago Castle Byers was just a bunch of branches and sheets haphazardly assembled together, but last spring, Hopper and Jonathan had surprised Will by building a more sturdy structure with planks and roofing to protect it during rain. This allowed Will to keep various pictures and knickknacks inside, making it an even more sacred place for him than it had been before. He turned on the gas lantern he kept inside and held it up to the picture wall, gazing at the various photos of us that I had helped hang up not long after the new Castle Byers was completed. He was surrounded by memories, some older, some newer. There was a picture of us as nine year olds hugging each other with our cheeks pressed together and wearing ugly Christmas sweaters at a Christmas party hosted by the Wheelers. Our smiles were missing a tooth or two. The most recent picture was the one from a little less than two months ago of us on the observation deck of the Sears Tower. Castle Byers was his place to escape from everyone, and people were only allowed to enter with his permission, but now he found himself not even able to stand being inside surrounded by all the memories we’ve shared. He started furiously tearing down all the photos, letting them fall to the floor in a clump. Once he was done, he stared at the empty walls of Castle Byers and shuddered. This place wasn’t the escape he hoped it would be. Even with our pictures torn down, the memories we shared inside Castle Byers could never be erased.

Will’s head hurt really badly. He turned off the lantern and left a darkened Castle Byers behind. He hopped back on his bike and attempted to pedal back home, but the swirling cocktail of thoughts, hormones and emotions was too much for him to bike safely. He hopped off his bike and walked it the rest of the way home, praying he wouldn’t come across any demogorgons or shadow men in the woods. Being in the woods alone at night still scared Will, and he quickly regretted visiting Castle Byers instead of going straight home. He hadn’t felt this alone since his week in the Upside Down.

Joyce got up from the couch to greet him once he arrived and immediately noticed how red his eyes were from crying all the way home. Will tried his best to tell her what happened this evening, but words eventually failed him. Still Joyce understood enough. Knowing there was nothing she could possibly say that would make him feel better, she hugged her younger son tight, holding him as he sobbed.  
______________________________________________________________________________

The song ended, and I took the needle off the record. Crawling back into bed, I curled up and attempted to sleep, but I found it impossible to clear my mind enough. I couldn’t stop thinking about how betrayed I felt by Will and how shitty everything was going to be from now on. What would happen to the party? Could it even handle another break? Or would it just crumble? I found myself dreading Monday because that’s when I would find out. At least for one more day, I could pretend the party was fine. I clung to my tear-soaked pillow, hoping my head would stop hurting and that pit in my stomach feeling would go away.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile in Hopper’s cabin, El was up watching TV since she had finished all her homework early enough, which pleased Hopper. Inexplicably, tears started streaming down her face as she sensed something was wrong. Very wrong.

Hopper, who was sitting next to her on the sofa, noticed her tears. “Hey kid, I thought this was supposed to be a funny show. Why are you crying?”

El turned to him slowly. “I think… I think something bad happened between Robert and Will. I can feel it. Their pain.”

Hopper frowned in concern. His adopted daughter feeling other people’s emotions was a new one for him, and frankly it weirded him out. “What kind of pain?”

“Heartbreak.”


	18. The Blue Monday, Part I

As I lay awake in my bed, I heard a loud banging on my window. Startled, I threw the covers off of me.

“Robert! I know you’re in there!” Mike’s muffled voice came through from outside.

 _Shit!_ I thought. _He knows. He definitely knows!_ _Will must have gone straight to him._ I grimaced as I stood up and walked over to my bedroom window. I pulled the curtain to the side. Mike was crouching on the sloped roof outside my window. Will must have shown him how to climb up. I unlocked the window, slid it to the side and let him in.

Mike appeared distraught. His hair was messy, and he was wearing a navy hoodie with matching sweatpants. He must have crawled out of bed to sneak over here. “Why didn’t you answer your com? I must have called your name like 500 times before I realized you weren’t going to pick up.”

“I took the battery out.”

Mike took umbrage to that. “What’s the point of having a com if you’re not even gonna have it on? And you know not answering won’t keep me away, right?” He looked around at the newly bare areas of my bedroom walls. “You redecorating?”

“You could say that,” I replied sardonically. I was trying my best not to break down in front of him. I had cried more than enough this evening. “Let me guess, you already know everything, and you’re here to give me shit?”

“All I know is what El told me. That you and Will… ended things.”

My face scrunched in bewilderment. “Will told her?”

Mike shook his head. “Will didn’t tell her anything. She just knew. She said she could feel what you two were feeling. Like... empathically.”

My mouth fell open as I began to realize what Will and I had just put El through. “I… I didn’t know. I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I apologized.

“What exactly happened between you two?” Mike demanded to know.

“Can’t we do this tomorrow or Monday? It’s one in the morning, and I really don’t feel like reliving the shitty day I’ve had.”

“No, not when my two best friends are breaking up with each other and jeopardizing the party,” Mike refused.

I sighed. We sat on my bed as I recounted everything from the ill-fated Operation: Skate and Switch to the argument Will and I had earlier that night and its bitter end. As I was finishing the story, I inevitably broke down, the floodgates opening once more. Mike wiped a tear that was dripping down his cheek before hugging me. “That night right before I told Will how I really felt about him, I made him promise that him knowing wouldn’t ruin our friendship, and in the end, I was the one who ruined it,” I sobbed.

Mike let go of me abruptly. “No, I can’t accept this! I won’t! I’m not gonna let some stupid squabble destroy your friendship or your relationship!”

I shook my head. “I can’t be around him, Mike. It hurts too much.”

“So that’s it? You’re going to throw away eight years worth of memories with Will just like that?” he asked angrily.

I was at a loss for words.

“God damn it, Robert! The party’s going to shit. How are we supposed to all sit together at lunch now?”

“Don’t worry about me. I’ll be fine, but Will... he needs you, Mike. He doesn’t have anyone else right now.”

“You’re not fine. And I’m your friend too,” Mike reminded me. “I’m not gonna leave you high and dry, even if you think you deserve it, because you don’t. What happened between you two… sucks, but I can’t really blame either of you for it. If there’s anyone to blame for all this, it’s Lucas for abandoning us and making Will feel less confident about himself and your relationship!”

“We can still talk outside of school, Mike, but I really think it’d be better for everyone if I stay away for a while.”

“No! You guys need to get together on Monday and apologize to each other! I’m not letting you leave the party!” Mike asserted desperately.

I cringed, shutting my eyes for a few seconds. “Mike, please stop. This isn’t goodbye.”

Mike rubbed his eyes. “It sure feels like it.”

“Why did you come here instead of going to Will’s first?”

“I couldn’t sleep after El called me up completely beside herself over what you guys were going through. I tried contacting both of you on the coms, but neither of you picked up, so I snuck out and biked over here since you live a lot closer than Will does.”

I scoffed.

“Hey, I care about you just as much as I do Will. Don’t ever think otherwise.” He paused for a moment. “I’ll talk to him tomorrow. Maybe he’ll change his mind about the whole ‘coming out' thing.”

“Yeah I doubt that.” There was a moment of quiet between us as we sat at the edge of my bed. I think Mike knew he wouldn’t but didn’t want to admit it. He always held onto hope whenever he could, and I loved that about him. I always wished I could be that optimistic.

“Can you do one thing for me?”

Mike nodded.

“I want tomorrow to myself. No emergency party meetings, no one sneaking up to my window, no one trying to talk to me about our breakup. Can you allow me that? One more ordinary Sunday?”

Mike sighed. “Yeah, if that’s really what you want.”

“It is.” I hugged him. “Thank you for coming over, Mike.”

Mike wrapped his arms around me. “Of course, Robert.”  
______________________________________________________________________________

The Starcourt Mall was fairly crowded when I wandered inside. It was Hawkins’ most popular hangout spot now after all. I found myself wading through the jam-packed walkway, passing various storefronts on my righthand side: boutique clothing stores with mannequins in the windows displaying the newest trends; a toy store with an elaborately designed window display of GI Joe figures, Cabbage Patch Kids, and Transformers; some jewelry stores; and a bath and hygiene product store. I was looking for some specific sweater I had seen in a catalogue but I couldn’t remember the brand or store it was from and was hoping I’d see it on a mannequin in the front of a store or at least jog my memory by walking by the right place.

When I started to pass by the food court, I spotted the party all sitting at a table together next to the golden fish fountain. Even Lucas was there. I sat down and joined them.

“Why are you here?” Lucas asked me, giving me a puzzled look. Everyone else was doing the same.

“I was looking for a sweater and just happened to run into you guys,” I replied.

“That seems to be a common theme with you, doesn’t it?” Dustin said. “Happening to run into us?”

“What are you talking about?” I crossed my arms defensively.

“We don’t want you around,” Mike declared. “You’re always getting us into trouble.”

“Mouthbreather,” El muttered, glaring at me.

“Why don’t you just leave us alone?” Max suggested. “Go find your dumb sweater or whatever.”

My lip was quivering as I felt my eyes start to water.

“Will?” I begged him to say something, since he was the only one who hadn’t verbally attacked me yet. I hoped he out of all them would defend me.

Suddenly, the mall was quiet. All the other shoppers were gone. Even the hum of the air conditioning had stopped. Startled, I stood up and looked around for any signs of life. Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I turned back toward the table, and the party had vanished except for Will, who remained silent and still in his seat but was now staring at the floor. I blinked, and to my horror the whole mall turned cold and dark. White spores floated in the air, and vines creeped along the walls. The golden fish fountain behind me was rusted and dried up with cracks all around the concrete. Storefronts were broken and the window displays mangled. Various items and products littered the floors. There were holes in the ceiling where tiles had fallen to the floor. A fluorescent light fixture had come loose from the ceiling and was dangling precariously by one chain. The other chain had snapped. The scene before me looked nothing short of apocalyptic.

“Will, what’s happening?” I croaked in fear, shivering.

He raised his head up slowly until his eyes met mine. It was a cold, vacant stare. “This is your fault,” he finally spoke.

Alarmed at his bizarre accusation, I took a step back.

“You couldn’t save us,” he continued on. “You couldn’t save me.”

“But you’re right here.”

He stood up. “It’s a shame really that you couldn’t find that sweater,” he said in a mocking way, “ because you’ll be cold forever now. Just how he likes it.”

I panicked as I realized he must have been possessed by the Mind Flayer again. “Will, please! I know you’re in there!” I shook him, but he remained unfazed.

“Shhh. You hear that?” His lips curled into a sinister smile.

At that moment I heard an all too familiar shriek I never thought I would have to hear again. I shuddered in fear.

“They’re coming.”

I heard the patter of demodog feet as dozens of the monsters arrived from every corner of the mall. They continued to let out their blood-curdling shrieks as they began to surround the fountain courtyard where I was standing. I tried to look for an angle to escape, but I quickly realized there was no way out. Accepting my doomed fate, I climbed into the fountain and curled my legs up in front of me, burying my head in my lap as the demodogs drew closer. As they begun to pounce, the bottom of the fountain below me crumbled apart, swallowing me as I fell into a dark abyss.  
______________________________________________________________________________

My eyes shot open as I was jolted out of my nightmare and I sat up in my bed, panting with fear. I looked over at my digital alarm clock. It was 5:42am Monday morning. This wasn’t the first time or even the second that I had woken up in a cold sweat tonight. Too scared to go back to sleep and remembering that I had wanted to walk to school today in order to avoid meeting the party at the bike racks, I decided to stay awake and watch the sun rise before hopping into the shower. I knew I needed to leave myself enough time to walk, which of course took much longer than biking.

Sunsets were beautiful and all, but there was something about sunrises that made them even more magical. The promise of a new day, perhaps? Although I tried to admire the view out my bedroom window of the last September sunrise of the year, I found myself unable to truly appreciate it. I couldn’t even be bothered to pick up my camera and take any snapshots. I knew that while this sunrise marked the last day of September and effectively the end of the season, it also marked the first day I would have to actually confront the consequences of breaking up with Will, something I had been dreading since Saturday night.

It was an odd period day, so Will was going to be in bio class with me first thing. I made sure to get to class extra early so that I could claim my usual seat and not have to relocate because he beat me to it. Fortunately the classroom was unlocked when I got there, and I was the first one inside. If I had to guess, Ms. Chung was probably in the teacher’s lounge getting coffee.

It wasn’t until I had sat down at my desk that I realized how exhausted I really was. I folded my arms against my chest and tilted my head back a bit, closing my eyes. Ten minutes before class started, Max and Dustin made their way into the classroom and spotted me nodding off at my desk. Will wasn’t with them, not that Dustin would want to be hanging out with him now either after this weekend. “Robert! Are you crazy?” Max immediately barked at me. They tossed their backpacks under their desks and sat down on either side of me.

I jolted awake at her outburst, feeling the sensation of falling forward like one often does when they catch themselves sleeping somewhere they’re not supposed to sleep. “Huh?” I mumbled, half awake. Some kids sitting near the back of the classroom were snickering at the fact I had been asleep, but I hardly cared.

“How could you…” She stopped herself as she briefly glanced over at the students sitting a few rows behind before facing me again. “... how could you break up with him?” Max whispered so no one else could hear.

“You broke up with Lucas,” I mumbled, fishing for some sort of comeback.

“That’s different, and you know it.”

I was more alert now. “Are you… mad at me?”

“No, I’m just shocked… is all. You two were like… so close, it was unreal.”

“How much do you know?”

“Dustin, Mike and El filled me in on everything.”

Dustin nodded to confirm. “In case you were wondering, Will didn’t even show up at the racks today,” he added.

 _Figures,_ I thought. He probably assumed I’d be there this morning the same way I had assumed he’d be there. “Then why are you so surprised?” I asked Max.

“It’s just… I never thought this could happen, not to you two.”

“Well, get used to it,” I replied more harshly than I really meant.

The few minutes leading up to class felt like hours. I had trained myself to look over at the doorway every time someone walked in since Max and Dustin had woken me up. Two minutes before the Period 1 bell, the moment I had been dreading finally arrived. As Will entered the classroom, I immediately felt a pit form in my stomach, and my heart started pounding. He had bags under his eyes, and his usually silky straight chestnut hair was disheveled. As he scanned the rows for a free seat, he caught me gawking at him. Our eyes met briefly before we quickly averted our gazes from each other, neither of us giving the other any sort of acknowledgement. With my lips pursed, I pretended to concentrate on the blackboard as an aloof Will walked by the front of the classroom, trying to not to let him figure out I was still watching him to see where he would go. Will went out of his way to go around to the back of the classroom and find somewhere to sit away from the three of us, keeping his eyes firmly ahead of him and ignoring us.

“Well, that wasn’t awkward at all,” Max commented sarcastically as Will took a seat at the end of the second to last row. Our seats were closer to the front of the class.

“I can literally cut the tension between you two with a knife,” Dustin remarked, proceeding to hold his pencil up in the air space between Will and me and make a slicing sound as he pretended to cut the air. Max and I rolled our eyes, unamused.

Unbeknownst to us, Lucas, who was sitting a couple of rows behind us, had noticed Will purposefully not sitting with me and started to suspect something was amiss. He stared into space as he wondered what that could mean.

The bell rang, prompting Ms. Chung to stand up and start class.  
______________________________________________________________________________

El sat down at her desk in her English classroom. This weekend had sucked. Not only had she been assigned to read the first eight chapters of _To Kill a Mockingbird_ (a novel that she was struggling to fully grasp based on her being a bit behind everyone else in reading comprehension) and be prepared to discuss it in detail, but she had also had to deal with the emotional burden of two of her best friends breaking up and knowing she had been unable to do anything to prevent it while also vicariously feeling our heartbreak through an empathic power she previously had not even known she possessed. She knew she had to participate in today’s discussion to keep her participation grade up, but she decided she would only talk the minimum amount required and listen carefully to everyone else’s analysis and comments to try to learn what she might have missed while reading it.

The desks today were formed into a circle to better facilitate discussion. This was a customary practice for discussion-based sessions of Mrs. Wilson’s English class. Socratic discussion, she called it. Students could speak without raising their hands and whenever they liked, as long as they didn’t interrupt someone else. El liked this method. It was less formal and more conversational, like she was used to in her daily life. It reminded her of the deep conversations that the party had in Mike’s basement. Before her vocabulary had advanced to the point of being able to fully participate in these conversations, she would sit there and listen to us, fascinated by how many different words we could use to describe a story or tell a joke. She had picked up many new words and phrases this way.

Jennifer rushed in and sat down in the free seat next to El, flashing a friendly smile at the brunette as she set her messenger bag down on the floor under her desk.

“Hey Jane, did you read all the chapters?”

“Yes. It was a little confusing though.”

“How so?”

“Sometimes… it felt like two different people were telling the story.”

“Oh, that’s because Scout is recalling her childhood as an adult but also putting you directly into the story and in her shoes as a child. It’s sort of a mix of perspectives: the older Scout and the younger one during the events taking place.”

El scratched her head. “I guess that kind of makes sense.”

Jennifer giggled. “I’m sure it’ll make more sense as we keep reading,” she assured her with a grin. Her smile quickly faded as her thoughts drifted to what she really wanted to talk to El about. “I wanted to ask you something.”

“What is it?” El turned toward her, sensing it was something important.

“I know Will’s generally pretty quiet and shy, and it’s totally adorable, but he seemed to really come out of his shell during our date on Saturday. Everything was going great, and it seemed like he was totally excited to be there with me… until I kissed him, that is. After that, he sort of freaked out on me and ran off. I thought I had him figured out, I really did, but now… now I’m not so sure. I guess what I’m trying to ask is… does Will like me? ”

El was practically squirming in her seat. She knew the answer to Jennifer’s question, and it took everything to not let it slip off her tongue. Of course El could have just told her the truth without letting her know why he didn’t feel that way about her, but she didn’t want to crush her spirits without an honest explanation. She could see how much Jennifer really cared for Will. Even though Will was technically single now, he had previously claimed he was gay, which Max had explained to her meant he only could have feelings for other boys as opposed to girls as most other boys did. Therefore El wasn’t sure Will could be capable of returning Jennifer’s feelings even if he wanted to. Also, she knew she wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that Will was gay, even Jennifer, though she found that stupid. As much as she hated doing it, it was better to lie, or at least deflect, than betray Will, she decided. “Maybe you should give him some time… you know… to think about it?” El suggested.

“You mean he doesn’t know how he feels?” Jennifer tilted her head in confusion.

“He likes being around you. He said so himself. But you probably caught him a bit off-guard when you kissed him. I’m sure he just needs some time to decide if he feels the same way you do about him.” El felt so disgusted with herself, feeding Jennifer lies like this. She picked up these sorts of lines from her soap operas she so enjoyed. The people on those shows were always so confused when it came to relationships even when it was obvious to the audience they were in love or secretly despised each other. At least the first part was true, kind of. Will did like hanging out with Jennifer, but only as friends.

Jennifer stared wide-eyed at El. “You know, you’re actually pretty knowledgable about this stuff. Must be from dating Mike Wheeler. He’s a tough cookie so I’ve heard.”

El wasn’t sure how to respond to that, so she shrugged.

“I hope I didn’t scare him off,” she frowned with worry. “I know I can come on a little strong sometimes, and I just get so… flustered around him, you know? And then I don’t think straight. You must know what that’s like.”

El nodded.

“I knew I should have waited longer before kissing him. God, I’m such an idiot.”

“No, you’re not an idiot. You’re in love. It’s ok. I promise he doesn’t hate you,” El tried to reassure her.

Jennifer cracked a smile and leaned over to give El a little hug. “Thanks, Jane. You’re a great friend.”

With her head over the blonde’s shoulder, El smiled nervously. All she could think at that moment was, _Friends don’t lie._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks everyone for sticking with the Stronger Together saga this past year! Your kudos and comments have really kept me motivated to keep on delivering for you guys! More chapters will be coming in 2019, and things are about to get really turned upside down (pun intended)! Part II of this chapter will be out sometime in the first couple of weeks of January. See you all in the new year!


	19. The Blue Monday, Part II

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Happy New Year! Here is the second part of "The Blue Monday" chapter, as promised! Again I want to thank everyone SO MUCH for the love and support for this story! I can't believe it's already almost been a year since I conceived this whole fic.

The moment of truth came at 11:55am. Who would I be sitting with at lunch? I had no appetite to speak of, and I had skipped breakfast this morning, my nerves at it again. I walked out of geography class with Max and Mike.

“Robert, you know you can still sit with us, right?” Mike reminded me. “You don’t have to talk to Will or even sit near him.”

I shook my head. “That’s ok. I’m gonna go look for Jack. I’m sure he’ll let me join him. See you guys later.” I walked away briskly toward the cafeteria to search for Jack, leaving my friends in the dust. I wasn’t really sure who he sat with typically, since he hadn’t ever mentioned it, and I’d never seen his lunch table. I was aware of a few guys he generally talked to and ran with during cross country practice besides Max and myself, so I was able to hazard a guess he might sit with them.

As they continued down the hallway watching me rush off ahead of them, Mike and Max shared a look of concern. The two had always had a weird dynamic and didn’t talk all that much. The first time they were alone together was a sour memory for both of them. Even though they had eventually warmed up to each other, they still were a little awkward and didn’t really go out of their way to hang out or have any substantial conversations. When it was the three of us, I could tell they both eased up a bit more. Finally, Max broke their silence. “I should sit with him,” she said abruptly.

“Now you’re leaving us too? What about the party?” Mike asked.

“Does it really still exist? Lucas abandoned us. Dustin just told me he’s gonna sit with his water polo buddies, and that he needs a break from all the drama. Robert’s definitely not planning on sitting at the same table with Will any time soon. The whole idea of ‘the party’ seems kind of pointless the way things are going, don’t you think?”

“How can you say that?” Mike snapped, deeply offended at Max’s astute analysis of the state of the party. “The party’s not dead!”

“Will needs you and El, right? He’s got nowhere else to go? Well, Robert needs me. He needs someone who understands what he’s going through, and while Jack’s nice and all, he has no clue about anything in Robert’s life. I promise you won’t miss me that much. I hang out with your girlfriend all the time. Besides, we still have geography and English together.”

“Of course I’ll miss you. Who else keeps my argumentative skills sharp?” Mike said, making an awkward attempt at humor.

Max chuckled lightly. “Later, Paladin.” She waved at him before taking off to find me.

Mike waved back sorrowfully. “Later, Zoomer.”

In the cafeteria, I spotted Jack in the lunch line. I decided to wait until he had gotten his food to ask to sit with him so I wouldn’t take up a place in line without grabbing anything to eat myself. I leaned up against the corner just off from the cash registers where people paid for their food. While I was waiting, I spotted Max heading straight toward me.

“Why aren’t you in line?” Her eyebrows were furrowed. “Jack’s already getting his pizza slice.”

“I’m not eating,” I replied, gripping the straps of my backpack.

“Jesus, Robert. Please tell me you at least ate breakfast.”

I shook my head.

Max sighed. She knew it was a lost cause to try to get me to eat when my anxiety kicked in. “C’mon, let’s get in line. I’ve still gotta eat even if you’re not.”

I followed her to the back of the line. It wasn’t as long now as it got right at the beginning of the lunch period. But that also meant there would be slimmer pickings.

I noticed Mike was about ten people or so ahead of us in line. “How come you didn’t line up with Mike?” I asked her.

“Cause I’m sitting with you, dummy.”

“You don’t have to sit with me because you feel sorry for me.”

She slapped my upper right arm. “I want to sit with you because you’re my friend! Do you _want_ me to leave?”

“No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that,” I apologized while rubbing my arm.

“Look, you’re going through a hard time, I get it,” Max acknowledged. We were getting close to the front of the line where people could start grabbing food from the various stations. “You know you’re gonna die at practice later if you don’t eat something, right?” Max warned me.

“About that…”

Max scoffed. “Don’t tell me you’re skipping practice too.”

“Can you cover for me?”

She stared up at the ceiling in disbelief. “Are you freakin’ serious?”

“Pretty please?” I gave her my best pouty face with large eyes and lower lip pushed outward.

Max shook her head. “You’re impossible sometimes, Robert, you know that?”

“And you’re the best,” I simpered.

“So what’s it gonna be? Fake appointment? Blowing chunks all over?”

“Definitely blowing chunks.”

“You owe me. Big time.”

“I know. I’ll make it up to you, I promise.”

She pointed at Jack, who was paying for his food at a register: “Look, Jack’s paying already. Go catch him before he disappears and we’re left bumbling around like idiots trying to find his table.”

I nodded and left her to get her lunch. Right before Jack was about to leave the register I called out his name. “Jack!”

The tall curly haired boy turned around and flashed that trademark grin of his. “Hey Robert! What’s up?”

“I uh… I was wondering if Max and I could sit with you today?”

His ocean blue eyes twinkled with excitement. “Of course!” He looked around for Max.

“She’s still in line,” I informed him, pointing her out to him. “Do you mind if we wait for her?”

“No, not at all.” We went over to an empty register counter so he could put his overstuffed tray down. Jack was a big eater, but he could handle his calories since he burned them off so quickly running all the time. Today, his tray had a large thick slice of meatloaf, a busload of mashed potatoes, a pile of green beans, a slice of pepperoni pizza, a stick of string cheese, a few spoonfuls of fruit salad, and a chocolate pudding cup. Seeing the amount of food on his tray kind of made me want to throw up, especially since I had zero appetite to speak of. I turned my gaze away from his tray and toward Max, who was grabbing her food now. “So, you finish all the math homework?”

“Yeah, barely,” I replied cryptically. It had been hard to concentrate on my math homework considering the events of this weekend. Also determining the area of polygons had proven to be more challenging than I thought. “Did you?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t too bad. I finished it during my last class.”

I was surprised by his nonchalant attitude toward doing homework for another subject in class. “And you didn’t get in trouble for not paying attention?”

He shook his head. “My bio teacher couldn’t care less as long as it looks like we’re taking notes.”

 _Ms. Chung wouldn’t stand for that_ , I thought to myself. Any distractions from the “curiosity voyage” were a no-no, as Will and I had learned the hard way the first day of school.

Max caught up with us, her lunch tray now full, but not nearly as much as Jack’s. “Hey guys,” she said casually.

“Hey Max! Our table’s this way,” Jack pointed toward the far left side of the cafeteria, which was the opposite side from the party’s table. _The farther the better_ , I thought. On the way over to his table, we passed by Dustin sitting with his water polo friends. He caught sight of us and waved quickly before delving back into whatever conversation he was involved in with his teammates. “I’m sure you’re familiar with the guys already: Phillip, Steve, and Tim,” Jack listed his friends off.

All of those boys were in cross country with me. I guess that was his crowd.  
I always referred to this Steve as Other Steve to Max, so as not to mix him up with Steve Harrington.

We arrived at their table. “Some new faces are joining us today,” Jack announced to his friends. “Well, sort of new,” he corrected himself.

“Sup?” Phillip waved. The other two followed suit. Phillip was a skinny Chinese boy with large framed glasses and silky straight medium length black hair that reached the nape of his neck. Other Steve unlike his older same-name counterpart, was not particularly good looking, with a mess of wavy auburn hair, a scrunched up face and a bad case of acne. Tim was tall kid, with longish teased sun-kissed blonde hair, golden skin and bright blue eyes. He kind of looked like a young Joe Elliot from Def Leppard.

Max and I sat down next to Phillip while Jack sat on the opposite side of the table at the end of the bench and to the right of Other Steve. Tim was to the left of the acne-ridden boy. “So what brings you two over here today?” Other Steve questioned us.

I opened my mouth to speak, but before I could get a word in, Max lightly kicked my leg under the table, and cut me off. “We just thought it’d be nice to hang out more, us being teammates and all,” she replied.

Jack smiled. “Yeah! You guys are welcome here any day. You can even bring the rest of your party over if you want. The more the merrier, I always say!” The other three boys had puzzled looks on their faces when Jack said the word “party.”

Max and I laughed nervously. “We’ll see,” I said.

“They’re _very_ particular about their table,” Max fibbed.

“We could go over to them if they prefer,” Jack offered.

“No!” I yelped. The other boys looked startled by my negative response, and I promptly covered my mouth in embarrassment.

Max kicked my leg under the table again. “What Robert means is it would be nice for us to have a cross country teammate-only table. You know, for team bonding?” she said, covering for my reckless outburst.

“Yeah, we see enough of our other friends, but we’re only ever all together during practice,” I added.

Max coughed obnoxiously, almost certainly as a dig at me for talking about being together at practice right before I was about to ditch.

“I understand,” Jack said.

“You do?” Max and I both asked simultaneously.

“Yeah! You guys want to form another party! A cross country-themed one!” Jack exclaimed.

“Yeah, let’s not call it that,” Max frowned.

Jack’s face fell in disappointment. “Oh, ok then.”

“We’re a team,” I suggested with a forced smile. Max rolled her eyes at me.

“That we are,” Tim acknowledged.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile Mike, Will and El were the only remaining members of the party at our old table. El was sitting across from Mike and Will. She and Mike had gone through the lunch line, but Will had brought his lunch from home like usual. While their lunches today weren’t anything out of the ordinary, the vacancies at our table were anything but ordinary.

“It’s so empty,” El frowned as she looked around at our half-deserted table.

“I’m sure it won’t be this way for too long,” Mike tried to reassure her.

“Oh, it will be,” Will shut Mike’s optimistic prediction down harshly before taking a sip of his apple juice box that his mom had packed him. El looked even more glum now than before.

“Will, don’t talk like that,” Mike rebuked him.

Will put his juice box down on the table. “It’s true, though. I’ve driven everyone away: Lucas, Robert, Dustin, Max, even Jennifer. She didn’t come over to chat today like she always does during nutrition.”

El swallowed her bite of pizza. “I’m sorry, Will. That’s my fault. I told her during English to give you some time to think about how you feel about her. You said I shouldn’t tell her about you being… you-know-what, and I panicked.”

“It’s ok. It’s probably better for her to stay away from me anyway,” Will concluded.

El looked crestfallen. “You know you really should tell her the truth. She’s totally in love with you. It’s not fair to keep lying to her like this. She thinks I’m her friend, but friends don’t lie.”

Will winced. “I can’t, El… I’m sorry. She’d hate me if she knew the truth. She’ll get over me eventually and find someone else… like Dustin.”

“And what about Robert?” El questioned him. “You gonna keep ignoring him too?”

“Robert wants nothing to do with me! And frankly I don’t want anything to do with him either,” Will seethed.

“El, let him be. It’s all still too fresh for him,” Mike tried to deescalate the situation.

“Stop coddling me, Mike! I’m not a baby!” Will snapped.

The table fell silent. Mike was at a loss for words. He had only tried to defend his friend, but with Will as upset as he was, he decided it was better to let him cool off. El recognized that Mike was right and so also decided to keep her mouth shut. The three friends nibbled on their lunches, no one knowing what to say. Moments later, Will started tearing up. “I’m sorry guys. I’m sorry I’m such a mess,” he whimpered, looking down at the half-eaten sandwich in front of him.

“It’s ok,” Mike comforted him, putting his arm around the shorter boy. “It’ll get easier. We’ll take it day by day. And I promise you El and I aren’t going anywhere.”

Will rubbed his eyes and nodded.  
______________________________________________________________________________

After lunch period ended, Jack and I walked to geometry class for the first time, both of us stopping at our lockers on the way to grab our books. We stopped at mine first since his was closer to our classroom.

“I… uh… noticed you didn’t eat anything at lunch,” Jack said as I opened my locker and pulled out my textbook.

“Yup.” I slipped my textbook into my backpack.

“Did you have like a really big breakfast or something?”

“Nope. Didn’t have breakfast.” I shut my locker door.

Jack’s mouth fell open. “Why would you starve yourself like that? Especially before practice?” he asked as we walked off toward his locker.

“I…umm… lose my appetite when I get anxious about stuff,” I admitted, perhaps too casually.

“You know, I struggle a bit with anxiety too,” Jack confessed, pushing his hand back through his light brown curls.

My eyes widened with surprise. “Really?”

“Yeah, my parents are like always on my ass about everything. They want me to be like this perfect son who gets straight A’s, takes all the harder classes, plays sports — a scholar athlete. Of course my mom’s annoyed that I’m not taking any honors classes this year. ‘That’s how you get into the good colleges,’ she never forgets to remind me. My dad always wanted me to play football like he did in high school, but I hate it. It’s too constraining a sport — too many rules.” He inhaled sharply. “I joined cross country instead because I’ve always loved running, ever since I can remember. You know what my dad said when I told him I was joining the team? Absolutely nothing, but he didn’t need to because the disappointed look on his face said it all.” He sighed. “Now, cross country is kind of like my therapy, I guess. How I deal with all my stress. The faster I run, the farther away all my parents’ pressure feels. The farther away their disappointment feels.” He paused for a moment as he opened his locker and pulled out his textbook. “So what about you, Robert? What’s stressing you out?”

I bit my lip as I found myself wanting desperately to just lay all my cards on the table here and now — tell him all about my issues with Will. There was something about Jack that made me really want to trust him. His charm? His cheesy grins? It was so tempting, but deep down I was scared — scared he would shun me if he knew what I was. And then where would I go? Besides, what did it matter anyway to tell him? Will wasn’t my friend anymore. I shouldn’t be so hung up on him.

Jack apparently noticed my hesitation. “It’s ok if you’re not comfortable sharing right now. Whenever you want to talk about it, I’ll all ears.”

I smiled nervously, acknowledging his statement. _Damn it, Jack! Why are you so nice and understanding? I don’t deserve it. Not after the way I pushed my best friend away._ That was why I found myself wanting to trust him, I realized. It was his kindness, his generosity.

I was a little apprehensive about seeing El in class, having still felt guilty about involuntarily putting her through my emotional breakup with Will. I knew she had sat with him at lunch today, and I was worried that she might be mad at me after listening to Will’s side of the story. When Jack and I stepped inside the classroom, El and I locked eyes, but she didn’t smile like she normally would when we greeted each other, which put me on edge. She waved solemnly at me as I sat down next to her in my usual spot.

“Hey,” she said.

“Hey.”

“We missed you at lunch today.”

“Uh huh.” I reached into one of the smaller compartments of my backpack and took out my pencil.

She leaned in closer. “How are you holding up?” she half-whispered.

I shrugged, not knowing how to answer that.

“I heard you guys made eye contact in bio this morning.”

“Uh huh.”

“That’s something.”

I didn’t respond, instead taking out my geometry textbook and notebook out of my backpack.

“I talked to Jennifer during English. I told her to give Will some time to think about his feelings. I don’t think she’s gonna bother him for a while.”

“That’s nice,” I said dispassionately as I flipped through my notebook pages to find the newest page.

“He’s really shook up.” I could tell now El was trying to get some sort of emotional reaction out of me.

“I’m sure he is.”

“Don’t you have anything to say about any of this?!” El said more loudly. Jack turned around, startled by El’s sudden increase in volume.

“Yeah, I’m sorry you feel emotions that aren’t yours,” I hissed, annoyed that she wouldn’t leave me alone about Will.

“You guys alright?” Jack asked, his eyebrows furrowed.

“We’re fine,” I replied.

El gave a reassuring nod to Jack. He turned away and continued his conversation with one of our classmates, and El turned back to me. “Those may not have been my emotions, but I have _every_ right to feel shitty. You two aren’t the only ones affected by all this.”

I was sure that was the first time I had ever heard El swear other than when she would occasionally say, “bitchin’,” which always gave me a good chuckle. She was right, though. My actions didn’t just have consequences for Will and me, but for all of us in the party. “I know. I’m sorry, El,” I apologized more genuinely. “I never meant to put you through any of this, but I can’t be his friend anymore. I won’t be hurt by him. Not again.”

“If it makes you feel any better, he’s being just as stubborn as you are,” El whispered with a faint smile.

Before I could respond to that, the bell rang and Mr. Mundy started class.

Geometry was a slog. It wasn’t the most boring class in my schedule. That honor went to geography. But it was the most difficult for me, and by this point in the day, I was running on fumes. I had barely gotten any sleep last night, and I still felt sick to my stomach. I even noticed my right hand was trembling a bit while taking notes. Thirty minutes into class and like fifty yawns later, I couldn’t help but doze off as Mr. Mundy was going over today’s lesson and demonstrating problems on the black board. Every so often, El would tap my arm with her pencil to wake me up. While it bugged me that she wouldn’t let me sleep, at least it was her catching me and not Mr. Mundy. Jack seemed to notice too as he chuckled about it while we were working on a group exercise during the second half of class.

Finally the end of school bell rang, and I was free to go home at 3:00pm for the first time this school year. Well, technically I wasn’t, but I was doing it anyway. Even though Max was going to exaggerate me being sick to our coach, I still felt like shit and hadn’t eaten anything, so it wasn’t like I was skipping just to skip. Then of course I remembered I had to walk all the way home. I groaned internally.

I packed up my things in a hurry and darted out the door, faster than even Jack normally would. “Wait up, Robert!” I heard Jack call out from behind, but I ignored him. I felt bad about it, but if I had let him talk to me, he might have been a loose end in my blowing chunks excuse to get out of practice. I felt even worse, however, about how I had treated El before class. I decided I’d message her via Supercom later to apologize one more time and also to tell her about my day and ask her about hers. El was a great listener, oftentimes even better than Max was.

I headed to my locker, crammed my things into my backpack, slammed and locked the door, and sped off toward the building’s main exit, weaving between the crowds of students and trying to avoid anyone I knew seeing me. I made it outside, the blazing afternoon sun promptly hitting my face. I squinted my eyes and sneezed a couple of times, before I composed myself and started to head home.

As I strolled past all the houses on my usual bike route, I started to reflect on my day. Somehow I had made it through without breaking down and crying. Jack and his friends proved to be a decent enough distraction from my woes. Not having anything to do with Will sucked, though. It sucked a lot. I missed the way his eyes twinkled when he laughed, our little conversations about the most random things while we worked on our bio labs and how he’d somehow always make sure we were also staying on task. I missed the way he’d smirk at me when he was trying to be a smart-ass and how I’d never be annoyed by it but instead just laugh. I even missed the way he’d randomly pop quiz me right before our biology and English classes when we had tests or quizzes coming up. Not since the week he was trapped in the Upside Down two years ago had I felt his absence from my school day so deeply.

Bio had been awkward as hell, but lunch wasn’t quite the shit show I thought it was going to be. While I was grateful that Max joined me at lunch today, I couldn’t help but feel guilty for putting her in the position of having to choose between sitting with the rest of the party or me.

I then started to wonder how Will’s day had gone. Did he miss me or did he hate my guts now? Was it as hard for him to see me but not interact with me as it was for me with him, or did he just shrug it off? Would he go crawling back to Jennifer now that we weren’t together? No, Will wasn’t petty like that. He knew how much he hurt Dustin by going on that date and not clearing the air.

Speaking of Dustin, he was apparently now taking a break from the party all together, choosing to sit with his water polo buddies instead. I found myself hardly surprised by this. At least I’d get to talk to him in biology.

Mike, Will and Max were in my Honors English class tomorrow, so that was going to be weird, but this time I would be prepared for it. Despite the rift that seemed to be forming between the four of us, splitting the rest of the party in two, I found myself feeling less apprehensive about tomorrow as I had felt about today but more heartbroken that this was the way things were heading for the foreseeable future.


	20. Tales from the Broken Party

As the weather grew colder in the spooky month, I gradually traded my t-shirts and shorts for flannel shirts and jeans. Sweatshirts were swapped out for heavier jackets and weather permitting, raincoats. In contrast to my wardrobe’s slow shift toward warmer clothes, my newfound crush on Jack had come about much faster. Since that first day of school sans Will when Jack had let me sit with him at lunch, I found myself trying my hardest to become closer to my fellow teammate — talking to him more during lunch and practice, hanging out with him and Max that first weekend of the month. The three of us had gone to Benny’s Burgers for lunch on Saturday the 5th, each of us getting a burger and a milkshake. Turned out chocolate was also Jack’s favorite shake flavor. Max’s was strawberry. While we were eating, Jack never missed an opportunity to crack a joke and make Max and me laugh. That Saturday with the two of them was the most fun I had had in a long time, and I would have completely forgotten about Will that day had it not been for the fact that he and I had frequented the burger joint so many times ourselves.

I began to notice that day and earlier that week the way my eyes were drawn to Jack, not just when he flashed that radiant smile of his, but even in the locker room when we changed or were in the showers. There I couldn’t help but trace the lines and curves of his slim, athletic physique. Even though I would sometimes catch myself checking out my other teammates as well, no one on my cross country team compared to Jack. His dark blue eyes were very different in color from Will’s, but beautiful yet the same. His skin was tan, his calves toned from frequent running. He was tall too at 5’9”, a good inch taller than Mike and I were. And his short light brown curly hair was unique. There was no other boy in school with hair like his. But what attracted me most of all about Jack was his magnetic personality. He was friendly, outgoing, intelligent, and most importantly kind. I guess I had a type.

During the second week of October, Jack had invited me over for dinner one night after cross country practice. I had accepted, of course — any excuse to be around him. There at his house, I met his parents, the ones he told me had all these extremely high expectations for him. I also met his older sister Sharon, who was captain of the girls’ basketball team. She was nice enough, but Jack had told me they fought a lot. They did always agree on one thing though: how overbearing their parents were.

While we ate our large KFC meal, Jack’s parents asked me a whole laundry list of questions such as what classes I’m taking, how I met Jack, why I decided to do cross country, who were my friends other than Jack, and what my parents did for a living. It was a bit overwhelming. It wasn’t really the questions themselves per se, but the way they scrutinized my answers, and their lack of any discernible emotional response to some of them. Sometimes I wasn’t sure whether my answers pleased them or disappointed them, but I could tell they were pleased that I was taking honors classes. I noticed Jack looked a bit uncomfortable when they were praising my academic pursuits, so I tried to steer the conversation away from that topic to make him feel better, hoping he wouldn’t resent me.

Afterward, when Jack invited me to his room to study for a math test together, he apologized for his parents’ behavior, explaining that they did this with all of his friends. I told him not to worry about it. At that moment I thought about telling him how my mom was a workaholic who rarely took interest in my life, but I didn’t want to diminish his issues with his parents. This had been a common theme in my friendship with Jack thus far. He would give me every reason to trust him, to want to tell him everything I was thinking or feeling, but I would always stop myself short. I had still not told him anything about how Will and I had a falling out and how the party was all broken up. And I most definitely hadn’t come out to him.

Ever since the last day of September, Jack had been there for me. He’d let me sit with him at lunch when I had nowhere else to go, he had opened up to me about his own struggles with anxiety, and now he had invited me into his home to have dinner with his family and do homework. For the first time, I was starting to believe that maybe I could actually get by without Will, without the party. I couldn’t let myself spoil that possibility.

Jack tapped his pencil on his notebook, staring off in thought. “It’s Lucas, huh? What’s been bothering you?” he said out of the blue. 

He couldn’t have been more wrong. I exhaled. “Yeah. It’s been really hard. Him not being around anymore… it’s like… like a bedroom wall that’s supposed to be decorated, filled with all kinds of photographs and posters, but is now just bare, you know? You used to look at that wall and see smiling faces… memories… always reassuring you…but now all you see is wallpaper, ripped in some places from tape peeled off.” I was definitely not talking about Lucas, but he wouldn’t know the difference.

“I’m so sorry to hear that, man. I guess I didn’t realize just how close you two were.”

I nodded. What he didn’t know wouldn’t hurt him, I guess.

“I’ve been kind of holding onto something too, and at first I didn’t say anything because I thought you two were together, but it seems pretty obvious now you’re not…”

 _Oh my god, does he somehow already know about Will and me?_ I panicked. My palms were starting to feel real clammy now as I sat cross-legged on his bed.

“So… umm…”

_Wait, does he actually like me?_

“I like Max. Like… a lot.”

His confession hit me like a ton of bricks. He was straight. Of course he was. Most people were. Will was a daisy in a field of weeds, and Jack was a weed. Now that Jack admitted his crush, it started to make complete sense — the way he looked around for Max when I came over to ask to sit with him at lunch, him asking Max and me whether we were dating at El’s bowling party, the way he always tried to make her laugh.

“Wow… umm…”

“I’m sorry. It must be kind of weird for you to hear, since you two are pretty close.”

“No, no, it’s okay,” I dismissed his observation.

“Ever since I met Max, I was like completely hooked, you know? She had this infectious, fiery personality. Killer looks too. Then I found out she and Lucas were dating, and at that point I was ready to let it go, but then she broke up with him and I had hope again. But even though you guys said you weren’t dating before, I still wasn’t sure whether maybe you really did secretly like each other and were now dating after she broke up with Lucas. So for the longest time, I was scared to tell her how I feel. I didn’t want her to think that I only hung out with you guys because I had feelings for her, which is totally not true by the way.”

“Not dating her and definitely don’t plan on it.”

Jack smiled. “Cool. Man, it feels so good to finally tell someone.”

In that moment, I recalled how good it felt when Will and I told the party sans Lucas about us being together while we were planning to figure out how to rescue him from the shadow man. Jack must have been feeling the same sense of relief. “Yeah, I’m glad you told me,” I said, though I secretly wished he hadn’t.

I left his house that evening completely devastated and had cried all the way home. The fantasy I had built up in my mind of Jack possibly being gay and liking me back had been shattered into a million pieces. So much for moving on from Will.

By the end of the second week of October I found myself starting to envy him. I couldn’t understand how Jack could have a seemingly crippling anxiety about disappointing his parents yet somehow be so happy-go-lucky all the time in school. How he could open up to me and not worry that I’d think he’s a freak, but I found myself completely unable do the same. How he could be so fast, so athletic, so good at math and pretty much everything he did. He was too perfect. It was then that I resolved to beat his times. To prove I could be just as good if not better than him.

That weekend, I avoided hanging out with Max and Jack to focus purely on running, trying to time myself with my Casio digital watch and beat Jack’s best times for the 5K and the bleachers. Both days of that weekend, I returned home completely drained and sore, my clothes drenched in sweat. During the third week of the month, I tried to work my way up to the front of the pack, focusing on increasing my speed while maintaining my endurance levels. We had a meet on Wednesday in Indianapolis, and while I performed better than I had ever done before, I still wasn’t satisfied because Jack’s time for that race was better than mine.

Thursday at practice, my blood boiled as I watched Jack running up ahead at the front of the pack like he always did. In a desperate attempt to finally beat him, I sprinted as fast as I could, not caring that I was wasting energy and managed to push ahead past Jack for a few glorious moments, but of course this failed spectacularly. Soon enough I ran out of steam, and Jack passed me along with all the people who normally ran up near him as I was reduced to walking. Jack shot me a confused look, but there was no anger or malice in it, which made me even more angry at him. Why couldn’t he just be mad at me for trying to show him up like a normal person? I proceeded to get yelled at by our coach, Coach Collins, to pick up the pace. By this point all I could muster was a slow jog, and I quickly fell into last place. Max had witnessed my pathetic attempt to be in first place and fell back to last place to give me crap for it.

“What was that about?” she asked, staring ahead as she jogged alongside me.

“What?”

She looked over at me. “Don’t play dumb with me.”

I exhaled. “I was bored.”

“Bored?”

“Yeah. It’s always the same pace, the same people up ahead, the same people behind. There’s no excitement.”

“If you wanna sprint so badly, join track in the spring.”

“Maybe I will,” I said roughly.

Max looked at me funny. “Are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Never better,” I answered with a fake cheeriness.

Max shook her head in disbelief. “I’ll catch you later. My time’s gonna be trash if I don’t push up more.”

I watched Max jog past me, leaving me in the dust. She eventually pushed up past all the kids who normally ran at the back of the pack and reached her normal place in the middle of the team, which was also around where I normally ran.

After practice, I hit the showers and changed back into my regular clothes, stuffing my running shorts and t-shirt into my backpack to bring home and wash. While I normally didn’t talk much in the locker room, today I totally kept to myself, tuning out whatever conversation Jack was having with the other guys. I wanted nothing more than to just get out of there and go home as soon as possible. The last thing I wanted was…

“Hey, Robert,” Jack stopped me right outside the locker room door.

…that.

“What was up with you trying to sprint past everyone earlier?”

“Oh, that’s just my normal running speed,” I quipped in a deadpan. “I usually slow it down to not make everyone else feel bad."

Jack raised an eyebrow.

“I was trying to… umm, improve my time, but didn’t realize how much energy I was using,” I mumbled, avoiding eye contact with him by staring at the ground.

“You seem kinda down. Wanna talk about it?”

I shook my head. “No, not really.”

“Is it about Lucas? I’m sure he’ll come around eventually,” Jack tried to sympathize. “And if he doesn’t, then that’s his loss.”

“I don’t care about Lucas!” I barked, finally making eye contact. “I haven’t cared about him since that bowling party!”

“But you said…”

“I was trying to beat your time in practice today! Is that what you want me to say?” I admitted angrily.

Jack frowned, but he didn’t appear angry at all — just concerned. “Did I do something to upset you?”

“Did you not hear me? I said I wanted to _beat_ you. I wanted to _crush_ your time. Doesn’t that make you mad?”

“No, you set a goal for yourself, and you’re trying to beat it. That’s kind of cool, though I don’t really recommend sprinting that early in a distance run.”

“What the hell is your problem? Why are you always so nice to me? To everyone? Why can’t you just be angry for once in your goddamn life?”

Jack looked appalled, but still not angry. “I don’t understand. You _want_ me to be angry at you?”

“Yes, ‘cause I deserve it!” I stomped off toward the bike racks before he could respond.

“Wait!” he cried out, but I didn’t so much as turn around as I continued away from him.

“I don’t know why you think you deserve it, but you don’t, Robert! You don’t!” Jack shouted from far behind me.

I made it to the bike racks, unlocked my bike, and started pedaling off down the street. Why did I feel this way? Why did I feel like I needed to compete with Jack? Why did I feel like I deserved his anger? Maybe it was because I was using him as some sort of pseudo-replacement for Will. My feelings for Jack: were they ever real? Or were they just me projecting my lingering feelings for Will onto someone else who’s close and nice to me? It wasn’t fair for me to treat Jack this way and keep him in the dark about my issues with Will, but the alternative was him maybe hating me. Then again, after that display, I wasn’t sure Jack was even capable of hating anyone. Maybe I’d tell him after our season was over in a few weeks, if we’re still friends by then. At least then if he bailed on me, I wouldn’t have to see him in practice or at meets. Just math class.

Right now, I found myself really wanting to vent to someone. But who? Who could I get advice from? Max? No, I couldn’t talk to her about Jack when I had been holding on to Jack’s secret crush on her. Dustin? No, I didn’t want to bother him with the kind of drama he was intently trying to avoid. Mike? He did live right near me. I could just stop at his house real quick before going home and still make it in time for dinner. My mom was actually going to cook tonight, so I couldn’t miss that. I did notice she had been trying to make an effort to be home for dinner more this past month. That’s what I would do then, I decided: go to Mike’s house and get some advice. Maybe I could even see how Will’s been holding up.

I turned off of Mulberry and onto Oak Street. Soon enough I hit the intersection of Oak and Maple. I turned right onto Maple and quickly pedaled past my own house without a second thought. Mike’s house was all the way down near the end of the street.

I parked my bike and left it near the Wheelers’ garage door. Taking a deep breath, I walked up to the front door and rang the bell.

I hadn’t been to Mike’s house in a long time. I hadn’t even talked to him outside of geography since that first Monday after my fight with Will. We didn’t talk in English class because he and Will were always together. I think he understood, since he never brought that up during geography.

Nancy answered the door.

“Robert, this is a surprise.”

“Is Mike home?”

“No, he’s either still at rehearsal or on his way home. They’ve been keeping him later recently.”

 _That’s right_ , I thought. His play was opening in a couple of weeks. “Do you mind if I wait for him to come home? I really need to talk to him.”

“Why don’t you talk to me first?” Nancy offered. “Come in.”

I stepped inside and Nancy led me into the living room. We sat down next to each other on the sofa.

“How’re you holding up?” she asked. Her eyes were sad, as though she already knew the answer.

“How do you think? This sucks. Everything sucks,” I said bitterly.

“It’ll get better over time. It hasn’t even been three full weeks yet,” she tried to reassure me.

“I don’t want it to get better.”

Nancy looked at me quizzically. “What _do_ you want?”

“I don’t know. But not this… I can’t even make new friends without falling for them or comparing them to him.” I sighed. “Does Jonathan hate me?”

“Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to run into him in the school hallway.”

I frowned. Of course he’d hate me.

“But he doesn’t hate you,” she assured me, as if reading my mind. “He gets it. He gets why you pushed him away. He had a feeling sooner or later one of you was bound to want to stop hiding, but neither of us thought it would happen so quickly or end up like this.”

“Why couldn’t Will just agree with me?” I lamented. “Things would have been so much simpler.”

“You’re never going to agree on everything. You don’t have to like all the same stuff, do the same activities in school. But you have to be willing to meet somewhere in the middle. Jonathan doesn’t like going out much. That New Order concert was a big deal for him, let me tell you. He did that for both of you. He’d just as soon sit at home and listen to their records while reading Vonnegut. Me? I like going out, going to parties, anything exciting really. As long as it’s out of the house and away from my parents.” She took a breath. “So how do you think we get around that: one of us always wanting to go out and the other always wanting to stay in?”

I shrugged.

“We trade off. Sometimes we’ll go out and do things I want to do, and other times we stay in, watch a movie or just talk. This year, Jonathan and I are staying in for Halloween and handing out candy instead of going to whatever party might be happening, even though it’s my last chance to go to one before I go off to college. Last year I pressured him into going to a Halloween party he had no interest in going to… didn’t even invite him to tag along with Steve and me, since they had some beef. Jonathan showed up by himself some time after we had. But he was the one who took me home when I was blackout drunk. So to make it up to him, we’re doing Halloween his way this year. I guess what I’m trying to say is, you and Will need to find compromise.”

I scoffed. “How am I supposed to compromise with him? By telling him it’s okay to treat me like crap? Like I mean nothing to him, all so we can stay safely in the closet?”

Nancy sighed. ”Look, he was wrong to treat you as less than what you mean to him, but you were also wrong to push him away and say nasty things to him. I know you were angry, and you still are. I get it. We all say things we might regret later when we’re angry. That night at the party, I got into an argument with Steve over how much I was drinking. I had already had more than enough but I still wanted more. He tried to take my punch away, and it ended up spilling all over my white blouse. So he took me up to the bathroom to help me clean up the stain, but it was never going to come out. While we were in there I apparently went totally off on him. I could barely remember it afterward but Steve told me I kept saying he was bullshit — that our relationship was bullshit. It was a moment of… unbridled honesty, one that I hadn’t ever had before with him. I was so broken up about Barb at the time, especially since her parents had just told Steve and me they were still looking for her and selling their house to afford a private investigator. And then there Steve and I were at this party, acting like nothing had happened. Like everything was fine. Like we had nothing to do with Barb getting killed.” She inhaled sharply. “I had been starting to recognize for a while that what we had wasn't really real. But it was wrong for me to phrase it so harshly, and to lash out at him the way I did, especially when he had been trying to take care of me. I could have had a more mature conversation with him after the party, and maybe things would have been fine for us in the end, but…”

The front door opened. Mike walked in and immediately spotted the two of us sitting on the couch. “Robert? What are you doing here?” Mike wondered. “I saw your bike outside.”

“I wanted to talk to you. It’s been a while.”

Nancy stood up and looked at Mike. “I’ll leave you two to it.” She turned to me. “Just remember: compromise is key,” she said softly, her lips curled into an ever so slight smile. She left the room and went upstairs to her bedroom.

“You wanna talk here or in the basement?” Mike asked.

“The basement would be better, probably,” I said.

Mike nodded. I followed him down into the basement. He opened the door and we walked down the steps, ending up on the sofa that had been the location of so many of the party’s past conversations.

“How are your rehearsals going?” I asked.

“Pretty well. Dress rehearsals start next week and opening night is in two weeks.”

“It’s coming up soon.”

“Mhmm,” Mike hummed.

“I’ll make sure to be there. Looking forward to seeing you on stage,” I smiled faintly.

“Yeah it should be fun,” Mike said. “How’s cross country going?”

I frowned. Cross country and Jack were so intrinsically tied in my mind that I couldn’t think about one without thinking about the other.

Mike noticed how glum I looked after his question. “Is that what you wanted to talk about?”

“Actually, it’s Jack,” I admitted.

His eyebrow furrowed. “Did he do something to you? I’ll wipe that stupid grin off his face if he hurt you.”

“That won’t be necessary,” I said, chuckling a bit at his defensiveness of me.

“So what about him?”

I took a deep breath as I sat cross-legged on the sofa holding a throw pillow in my lap. “Since I couldn’t bring myself to be around Will or the party anymore, I tried to find another friend… someone who could fill the gap that was left by him. Jack had always been really friendly to me in math class and cross country. After I decided to sit with him at lunch that first day after Will and I broke up, we hit it off, and I started spending more and more time with him. Things were ok at first, nice even, but soon enough I found myself becoming totally attracted to him. I’d admire him in the locker room, stare at him longer than I should have been when I was around him. He was kind, smart, attractive... he was just there, you know? Last week, he invited me over for dinner and to do math homework. It was a nice evening, despite his parents questioning the hell out of me. But then while we were studying in his bedroom…” My voice broke as all the feelings from that night resurfaced and started to overwhelm me.

“What? What happened?” Mike demanded to know.

“… he… he told me he has a crush on Max.”

“Oh, Robert…” Mike sympathized, putting an arm around my back.

“I had this stupid fantasy built up in my head... that maybe, just maybe, he was secretly gay too and liked me back, but of course he took that fantasy and stomped it right to the ground. I thought he was it, Mike. I thought he was my best chance to move on from Will, to be happy, you know? But instead, I just got hurt again. I don’t know why I keep doing this to myself.” I rubbed my right eye as I felt a tear start to drip.

“It’s not your fault. You can’t control who you’re attracted to.” Mike thought to himself for a moment. He moved his arm back to his side. “Wait, so does that mean you’re over Will? If you like Jack now?”

“That’s the thing, I don’t know. I guess I’m just… really confused. Like I thought I liked Jack, but now I’m not so sure whether I really did or if maybe I just was using him to get over Will. But now, he just makes me feel bitter. He’s too perfect. His looks, his personality, his times.”

“He’s okay, I guess, but nothing special.”

“What do you know? You’re not attracted to guys!” I protested his downplay of Jack.

“I mean have you looked at him? He's got one of those faces that makes you think he's always up to something. Like an imp. Will’s _way_ better looking, just saying.”

“Not helping,” I gritted between my teeth. I took a breath. “So today at practice I tried to beat Jack. He’s always ahead of the pack — has the best times on the team, but I somehow managed to sprint ahead of him for like 30 seconds or so. It felt amazing, but then it backfired… like really badly. I ended up in last place ‘cause I ran out of stamina. And the worst part was he wasn’t even mad that I tried to beat him. Even after I told him that was what I was trying to do — he didn’t care. In fact, he even encouraged me. He was all like, ‘That’s cool you have a goal, but maybe don’t sprint so early.’ Like it was some joke to him. Like he knew how superior he was.”

Mike scratched his hair. “Hmm, you could be right, and he wanted you to know you’re not a threat to him. But maybe he’s really just that ridiculously nice.”

“But the thing is, I wanted him to be angry at me. I wanted him to tell me off, call me an idiot, call me pathetic. Because it’s the truth.”

“No, it’s not! You’re neither of those things,” Mike said adamantly.

“I don’t deserve to be friends with him. To be told his deepest secrets when I can’t even do the same. And of course just like with Will, my feelings keep getting in the way and ruining everything.

“You have way bigger secrets to keep than him having some stupid crush on Max.”

“I know, but it feels wrong, you know? Not telling him I’m gay. Not telling him about what happened between Will and me.”

“Why did you want to beat him so badly anyway?”

“I wanted to feel like… like I could be as good as him. As perfect.”

“Stop saying he’s perfect! He’s really not! He’s actually kind of obnoxious. Like who’s that peppy all the time?”

I shrugged. “Well, he did tell me about his constant fear of letting his parents down and all the pressure they put on him. His mom wishes he was taking honors classes, while his dad wishes he was playing football instead of running cross country, and apparently neither of them have gone to any of our meets.”

“So he is human and not some permanently grinning robot imp,” Mike joked.

I giggled a bit at his dig at Jack.

“You don’t have to be like him, Robert. I much prefer you anyway,” he said with a faint smile.

I stared at him perplexedly. Those words were awfully familiar.

“What? Why are you looking at me like that?”

“It’s just… Will said the same thing to me once.”

“Oh… I didn’t mean…” he tried to apologize.

I put my hand on Mike’s shoulder. “It’s okay.” I sighed. “How is he? Will, I mean.”

“He’s… struggling. I don’t really see him outside of school anymore. He just stays in his room drawing on weeknights and weekends. We don’t talk about what happened between you two. He doesn’t study with El and me either. I’ve tried to invite him multiple times, but he turns me down every time saying he’ll be fine, but then I’ll ask him how he did on a test and he’ll be like, ‘Good enough,’ or ‘It is what it is.’ I’ve never seen him so apathetic about test scores. You know how much of a perfectionist he is when it comes to studying.”

I nodded. I knew all too well how much effort he put into studying. He always loved making flash cards and using them to quiz me and himself. Sometimes it got irritating because he’d want me to quiz him over and over again and he always made a zillion of them, but it helped me too, so I couldn’t complain too much.

Mike continued on. “Oh, and I’m almost positive he stopped going to AV Club, since he hasn’t brought it up and Jonathan seems to be driving him home everyday right when school gets out. He hasn’t biked to school once since you guys broke up. I wish I could help him more, but I don’t want to force him. He has his own way of processing things. So I’ve been trying to give him space, hoping that he’ll come to me when he’s ready to talk more, or even just study, you know?”

I felt awful hearing this. I did this to him. I turned him into some sort of shell of himself. And here I was thinking I was having a shitty time attempting and failing to get over Will with Jack.

Overcome with emotion, the words I had thought so much about over the past three weeks but hadn’t said out loud to anyone finally escaped my lips: “I miss him.” Tears started to stream down my face.

“What? Do my ears deceive me?” Mike asked in an almost teasing way.

“No, you idiot. I miss him. I miss Will.”

Mike sprang up from his slouched position on the sofa. “That’s great news! We can get you two together, and you can hash it out…”

I shook my head. “Mike…”

He continued on, not listening to me. “You don’t know how long I’ve waited to hear you say that…”

“Mike!” I shouted.

Startled by my volume, he shut up.

“I can’t. I can’t talk to him.”

“But you miss him. I know he misses you too, even if he hasn’t admitted it yet.”

“How can I possibly be with him when he’s so uncomfortable in his own skin? He’ll never be the boyfriend I want him to be. He’ll just hurt me again. I think… I think that’s why I also can’t be around Jack. Why I want him to be angry with me. Because it’s easier to get over someone that hates you or is angry at you than to be around someone who’s your friend but won’t ever return your feelings. Like, I’d rather Will hate me because then I could just move on, you know?”

“You don’t mean that. You don’t want Will to hate you.”

“I’m sure he already does.”

“Of course he doesn’t! Although he has been pretty bitter ever since you broke up with him.”

“See? Doesn’t matter if we’re together or apart. We can’t help but hurt each other. He’s better off without me, and I’m better off without him. I tried to help him be more comfortable with himself, but I couldn’t. I couldn’t help him.” I stared down at the ground, feeling defeated.

“You couldn’t save him,” Mike said slowly, a light bulb going on in his head.

“What?” I shot him a confused look.

“It’s like the campaign when you rolled too low to save Will from the shadow man. Everything that’s been going on with the party recently: Lucas, Dustin, Will — it’s all just like the campaign.”

I blinked a few times, waiting for him to elaborate.

“Lucas went off to get food and supplies with Dustin and Will. But they all separated, and then the shadow man got them one by one and put them under catatonic spells. We didn’t get far enough for everyone to discover the true nature of the spell or how to break it, but basically the spell traps you by paralyzing you with fear, and the only way to break it is…”

“…to show no fear,” I finished his sentence.

“Yeah. Anyway, just like in the campaign, all three of them have fears that have paralyzed them in some way. Lucas is scared of the party changing into something he doesn’t recognize, Dustin’s scared to tell Jennifer he has feelings for her, and Will’s scared of people knowing he’s gay and hurting him because of it.

“Whoa… you’ve got to be like the most scarily accurate game master ever. Remember our campaign two years ago? Will rolled too low to fight off the demogorgon, and then after the game got cut short that night, the real one showed up and took him away.”

Mike scratched his head. “That was just a coincidence. This one I specifically based on our visions, and we already know the shadow man was using them to prey on all our biggest fears, so it’s not much of a stretch that the campaign lines up with real life, now that I think about it.”

“I still don’t understand, though. Why couldn’t I help Will not be scared? Why couldn’t I save him?”

“You can’t save him. He has to save himself. The fearlessness has to come from within. Same for Lucas and Dustin — they all have to break their own spells,” he said pensively.

“So what does that mean for us then?” I wondered.

“I think... I think Will will come around eventually once he learns to accept himself,” Mike predicted.

I nodded solemnly and looked at my watch. It was almost 7! I stood up quickly, making myself a little dizzy. “Oh my god, it got really late! I gotta get home for dinner or my mom’s gonna kill me.”

“All right. No worries,” Mike said calmly.

I waited a moment for the dizziness to wear off before we started up the basement stairs. Once we were on the first floor again, he walked me to the front door.

“Hey Mike, one more thing.”

“Yeah?”

“Don’t tell Will I miss him. If he really does miss me too, it’ll just make him feel worse.”

He shot me a pointed look.

“You know I’m right.”

Mike sighed. “Okay.”

I opened the door and stepped outside.

“Hey, Robert?”

I turned around to face him.

“I’m glad you came over to talk.”

My lips curled into a faint smile. “Me too.”  
______________________________________________________________________________

The morning of the 29th El walked into her English class. Jennifer was already at her desk. El sat down next to her as per usual.

“Jane, I gotta ask you something,” Jennifer said, skipping her usual pleasantries.

Fearing the worst, El clenched her jaw. Had Jennifer somehow figured out she had been lying to her? “Sure, what is it?” she replied hesitantly.

“Is Will okay? I haven’t seen him and Robert together in the halls in forever, and he looks kind of glum every time I walk past him. So many times I wanted to stop him and ask whether he’s okay, but you said he needed time. It’s been a whole month now. I feel like that’s enough time, right? Maybe I should just talk to him. Or maybe I shouldn’t. He probably hates me. I should probably take a hint, right?” Jennifer babbled on anxiously.

El swallowed. Jennifer was more observant than the brunette had taken her for. She couldn’t keep up her lies to this poor girl any longer. “I’m sorry. I should have been more honest with you. Will and Robert... they umm... they had a fight.”

“Oh no! That’s awful!”

“It wasn’t really either of their faults, but friends fight sometimes, I guess. They haven’t talked all month.”

“Oh my god, I can’t even imagine how horrible that’s been for them,” Jennifer sympathized.

“Forget what I said before... about him needing time. But I think... I think he really could use a _friend_ right now more than a girlfriend,” El tried to encourage the blonde. She didn’t tell Jennifer the full truth, but it was a start.

“Sure, I get it.” Jennifer said, looking ever so slightly disappointed.

“I should have told you sooner… about their fight,” El apologized, still feeling guilty.

“It’s ok. Sometimes those kind of fights don’t last very long and they’re not even worth mentioning. It’s not uncommon for some of the girls on the squad to get into little catfights and not talk to each other for a week or two. I never bring them up to anyone outside the squad unless they go on longer than that. I’m sure you had no idea their fight was going to last a whole month.”

El nodded in agreement. She had known things weren’t just going to go back to normal right away, but she honestly had not expected the party to still be broken up like it was by this point. With each passing day, she continued to lose hope that the party would ever reunite.

Jennifer dug into her messenger bag and pulled out a small orange slip of paper. Her demeanor suddenly shifted back to her usual peppiness. “You know I was going to wait until the end of the class to start handing these out, but what the heck?” She handed El the slip.

El read the orange piece of paper: _Michelle and Jennifer Hayes’ Halloween Bash — Eat, Drink, and Be Scary_ _OCT 31st 7pm Corner of Elm and Cherry St._ There was a picture of a jack-o-lantern with a beer bottle in its mouth, just in case anyone wasn’t sure whether it was _that_ kind of party.

“It’s mostly going to be my sister’s friends and classmates, but she said I could invite some of my friends as well. Hope you can come!”

El looked up from the invitation at Jennifer. “I’ll try to stop by, but Mike’s been dying to take me trick or treating. First time as a couple,” El informed her with a faint smile. It was actually El’s first time, _period_ , but she thought it would be weird to admit that.

“You two are the absolute cutest,” Jennifer beamed. “He’s invited too, you know?” She pulled out another invitation. “I’ve got to scramble during nutrition to hand these all out, since it’s too crazy finding people in the cafeteria during lunch, so if you could give this to Mike, that would be great.” She handed El the second orange slip.

“Sure,” El nodded, stuffing them in her backpack.

The first period bell rang and Mrs. Wilson promptly started class.  
______________________________________________________________________________

C-. Will stared down at the letter grade on his latest biology test. Ms. Chung had just handed everyone their tests back as class was wrapping up. Finally he would be able to escape the class he dreaded the most every week. It didn’t used to be this way. In fact, it used to be his favorite class other than English, but ever since our fight, Will lived for the nutrition bell on odd days. English he didn’t like as much anymore either, because I was also in that class, but at least there he had Mike. Here, he had no one. Just a bunch of former friends, most of whom still worked on labs together and whispered to each other during lectures.

The grade didn’t surprise Will. He was used to it by now. He just couldn’t find the motivation to study like he used to. He still read the textbook and did his assignments and labs, the group ones now with random classmates he didn’t really click with. That was putting it nicely. They’d often finish the labs without him and only slap his name on them after Will would politely remind them in class that morning that he just so happened to be in their group, which they of course conveniently forgot. Either that or they just flat out didn’t care, since they never offered to get together with him to work on them outside of school and ignored him when he tried to offer. But actually sitting down and studying, he didn’t bother with that so much anymore. Now he’d rather draw given the choice and only do the bare minimum of what was required to pass his classes.

What did surprise Will, though, was the note under his grade written in red ink that said, “See me after class.” No teacher had ever specifically wanted to talk to him. Not even when he returned to school after his week in the Upside Down and the few days in the hospital recovering afterward. His teachers had met with his mom and given her the homework he had to make up, likely to avoid overwhelming him after the trauma he had gone through. Once he was back, other than casually reminding him that he could take the time he needed to make up the work he missed, they pretended like his missing week never happened. But now, Ms. Chung specifically wanted to talk to Will after class, one-on-one.

The nutrition bell rang, and everyone finished packing their things and filed out the door. Will lingered behind in the back of the classroom where he had been sitting for the past month and waited for everyone to leave before making his way over to Ms. Chung, who was currently wiping the blackboard. He stepped toward her nervously, not really knowing what to expect. The last time she had singled him out, he had almost gotten detention.

“You wanted to see me?” Will asked, his hands in the pockets of his military green hooded jacket. It was the same one he wore often last fall, and while he swam in it then, now it was starting to fit more snugly since he had grown a bunch since then.

Ms. Chung turned around and placed the large eraser down on the ledge under the blackboard. “Yes. Have a seat at my desk.” She headed over to her desk and sat down.

Will sat down on the chair in front of her desk that was specifically purposed for meetings like this. Raindrops pattered on the windows on the left side of the classroom. It was supposed to rain all day long, but Will didn’t mind. He spent most of his days indoors anyway, and Jonathan would be driving him home from school today as he had been this whole month.

“As I’m sure you’re aware, your grade in this class has slipped quite a lot this month. Now I understand the course does get harder as we progress through the various units. On average, students’ grades in this class start off around a mid to low A average for the first unit and then slowly dip down as the year progresses until they plateau around a low B average. In your case, not including group labs, your homework and test scores took a nose dive at the beginning of the month from a low A average to a low C average and have stayed that way the rest of the month, leaving your grade hovering right now around 74%. That’s almost unheard of for this class, and it begs the question of whether you’ve hit a wall and are really struggling with the material, or if you’re just not putting in the effort you used to put in. I know you’re a capable student, one of my brightest this year, so I’m almost certain it’s the latter. Would you agree with that conclusion?”

Will shrugged. “I guess.”

Ms. Chung pulled her silky black hair behind her ears, her pearl earrings shimmering slightly as they caught the light from the above fluorescent fixtures. “So what seems to be disrupting your curiosity voyage? Everything all right at home?”

“Uh huh.”

“What about at school? Are you being bullied?”

“No, not so much anymore.”

“But you were at one point?”

Will nodded, recalling the taunts many of his peers would use against him such as “Zombie Boy.” People didn’t say it to his face anymore, but he was sure they whispered it amongst themselves when he wasn’t around based on the way some of them stared at him when he walked through the school hallways.

“I’ve noticed you haven’t partnered with Robert for labs in a while, and you haven’t been sitting with him either.”

Will looked down at the various knickknacks, picture frames and novelty mugs holding pens, pencils and highlighters on Ms. Chung’s desk, not wanting to make eye contact.

“You two were friends, were you not?”

Will nodded hesitantly.

“But now?”

Will shook his head.

Ms. Chung frowned and sighed. “Losing a friend is one of the hardest things we go through in life. Oftentimes there’s no clear reason why they leave us behind or we leave them behind. But other times we can pinpoint one specific event that made everything go downhill. And those are the hardest because of course we can’t help but think maybe, just maybe if we had done things differently, said something else, they’d still be our friends. But it’s best not to linger on that. You can’t change the past.”

“I don’t miss him if that’s what you’re implying,” Will said.

“I’m not implying anything. Just making an observation,” Ms. Chung replied.

“What does this have to do with my grade?”

“I don’t know. Does it have anything to do with your grade?”

 _What was she playing at?_ Will thought. He had expected her to try to make some sort of connection between us not being friends anymore and his sudden drop in his biology grade, but instead it was as though she were trying to let him come up with his own conclusion. “He was my best friend,” Will found himself admitting.

Ms. Chung didn’t respond, allowing him to continue.

“We had a fight, and now we don’t talk. I don’t mind, though, really. It’s for the best.”

“You know, I’ve learned a thing or two about best friends over the years: while they tend to be a lot harder to come by, I’ve also found they’re even more difficult to get rid of. They almost always find their way back to each other. No matter the fight, no matter the distance.”

“Yeah, well that’s not going to happen. Not for us.” He paused for a moment. “And my grade has nothing to do with him, either,” he insisted. “I just… need to study more, that’s all.”

“Well, it seems like you’ve got it all figured out, so I’ll be expecting to see much higher scores on your next test and homework assignments.” Her expression softened a bit. “I want you to know I take no pleasure in watching any student in my class struggle, especially not one of Mr. Clarke’s favorites.” She noticed the look of surprise on Will’s face. “Yes, he has nothing but praise for you.”

His eyes widened. “Really?”

Ms. Chung smiled and nodded. “Yes, really.” She took a breath. “Nice chatting with you, Will. I hope your curiosity voyage can now continue on unimpeded.”

He nodded.

“Enjoy the rest of your nutrition. See you Thursday.”

Will stood up and put his backpack on. “Thanks. See you Thursday.” He walked toward the door and out of Ms. Chung’s classroom.

As she watched him leave, the confident facade she had put up while chatting with him quickly washed away, leaving a pained expression on her face. Ms. Chung could tell Will was much more troubled than he tried to let on.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“Any plans for Halloween?” Max asked as I stuck my biology textbook in my locker and grabbed my geography one.

“No, not really.” I stuffed my book in my backpack.

“El told me she’s going trick-or-treating with Mike. It’s her first time.”

“That’s exciting,” I remarked before shutting my locker door. “Do you have plans?”

“No, no weirdo stalkers have randomly approached me in the school hallway asking me to go trick-or-treating with them this year,” Max joked.

I chuckled. “Maybe Jack will ask you.”

“What makes you say that?” Max raised an eyebrow.

“No reason,” I brushed off her question.

Before she could respond, Jennifer darted over to us much to our surprise. She looked a bit frazzled. “You’re both officially invited to my sister’s and my Halloween bash.” She handed us each a small orange slip of paper with information regarding the party. Jennifer turned to me specifically. “Maybe you and Will can sort things out there,” she said wistfully.

She took off in a hurry, leaving me with a baffled look on my face as I stood there grasping my invitation and watching her disappear amongst the crowd of students in the hallway. “Does she… know about us?”

“I doubt it. She probably just noticed you and Will haven’t been hanging around each other. But hey, now you’ve got something to do for Halloween.”

As Max spoke, I scanned the contents of the bright orange invitation. “Eat, drink, and be scary,” I read out loud. I scoffed. “C’mon, you don’t expect me to actually go to this.”

“Oh, I totally do.”

I shook my head. “No way. I’m not going, not after Nancy just finished telling me how shitty of a time she had at a Halloween party last year. I’ll probably just help my mom hand out candy or something.”

Max rolled her eyes. “Seriously? You’ve been fucking miserable this whole month, Robert! This party is exactly what you need — to let loose a bit.”

“But Will’s going to be there. You heard her.”

“Who gives a shit? Besides, you might not even see him if this party’s gonna be as big as it sounds.” She took a breath. “Look, I’m going even if you’re not. Do you _really_ wanna be alone on Halloween?”

I sighed. “No. Fine, I’ll check it out, but if it sucks, I’m leaving.”

Max smirked. “Great! I knew you’d come around.”

I rolled my eyes at her. She could be very persuasive sometimes, and she knew it.  
______________________________________________________________________________

After spending almost the entire nutrition looking for Will while simultaneously handing out her stack of invitations, Jennifer finally caught sight of him walking out of his biology class about five minutes or so before the bell was going to ring.

“Will! There you are!” Jennifer bombarded him. “I’ve been looking all over for you.”

Will looked taken aback. “Jennifer? What’s going on?”

She handed him an invitation. “My sister and I are hosting a Halloween bash. Hope you’ll make it.”

Will took the orange slip from her and looked down at it —lots of caps and bold. “Thanks. I’ll umm… think about it,” he said hesitantly.

Jennifer studied his expression. Will didn’t look as excited for her party as she had hoped he would be, but she also knew he hadn’t really been himself in a while. She frowned. “Well, if you decide you’re feeling up to it, I think you’ll be in good company. I’ve gotta go hand out the rest of these before nutrition’s over. See you around.”

“See you around,” Will echoed back as the blonde took off. He peered down at the invitation again, studying every detail as though searching for some hidden clue. _What did she mean by ‘good company?’_ he wondered.

We hadn’t really gotten a chance to discuss our Halloween plans before we broke up, but Will had always assumed we’d all go trick-or-treating like last year, only this time, El would finally be joining us. After everything that had happened, he knew she was still really looking forward to going for the first time with Mike, and they had of course invited Will to tag along. But he also knew that El and Jennifer had a budding friendship and that she almost certainly had invited her and presumably also Mike to her party. _Maybe that’s what she meant,_ Will guessed. This party was not only throwing a wrench in El’s first trick-or-treating experience but also in Will’s attempt to redeem last year’s unsavory Halloween. He wasn’t sure whether he really believed this one could be any better than last year’s when he and I were split up and the party was scattered, but he was sure he didn’t really like big parties with lots of people he didn’t know. He took after his older brother in that way. At least this year he could rest easy knowing there would not be any shadow monsters chasing him, hopefully.

The bell rang. Will folded the invitation into quarters and stuffed it in his jacket pocket before heading over to gym, which all things considered wasn’t his least favorite class anymore.  
______________________________________________________________________________

He couldn’t believe it. Jennifer had invited _him_ to her Halloween party! _Now what?_ the short curly haired boy thought as he headed down the elevator to the food court. Dustin had rushed over to the Starcourt Mall straight from water polo practice to catch Steve before he took off from his shift at Scoops Ahoy at six.

When he arrived at the food court, he caught sight of Steve, who was working alongside Robin, both of them in their humiliating sailor uniforms. Dustin waited impatiently at a table near the ice cream booth, staring at the seconds counting up on his digital watch and tapping his foot on the floor. Once his watch read 6:00:00 pm, Dustin sprang into action, jumping up from his seat ready to intercept Steve before he disappeared.

Steve hung up his apron and took off his hat, holding it in his hand as he started to walk away from Scoops Ahoy.

“Steve! I need your advice! Pronto!”

“What? No ‘hey, how’s it going? How was your day at work?’” Steve replied sarcastically.

“We both know your day sucked. Scooping ice cream all day isn’t as fun as it sounds,” Dustin retorted.

“I’ll have you know I love scooping ice cream in this ridiculous sailor getup six days a week,” the nineteen-year-old shot back.

“Nah, it’s only fun when you’re working with Robin,” Dustin teased. “Seriously, when are you gonna ask her out?”

“How do you know I haven’t?” Steve shot back.

Dustin gave him side-eye.

Steve sighed. “I’m… working on it. Besides, you’re one to talk. You haven’t asked Jennifer out, yet, have you?”

“Actually that’s kind of what I came over to talk to you about.”

Steve raised an eyebrow. “Let’s take a walk.”

The two left the food court to stroll around the mall.

“You’re looking good, by the way,” Steve remarked. “Starting to get that swimmer body the girls love so much.”

Dustin blushed. “Thanks, I guess.”

“All right, lay it on me. What’s going on with you and Jennifer?”

“She invited me to some big Halloween party at her house. Apparently a bunch of older kids are gonna be there too ‘cause of her older sister Michelle and she’s popular as hell. I’m struggling to figure out how to approach Jennifer once I’m there. She still likes Will as far as I know, so I can’t just lay the usual Henderson moves, but I heard they haven’t talked like all month so maybe she’s given up on him by now.”

“Hmm, that’s going to be tricky. She’s gonna be real busy since she’s hosting it. Also, word of advice: those parties get real crazy. I’m talking absolutely shit-faced teens groping each other on the dance floor, couples hooking up in bedrooms, keg contests, you name it, it’s gonna happen. You sure you’re ready for that scene?”

Dustin gave him a pointed look. “I’m not an idiot. I’ve seen enough movies to know what goes on at parties.” He paused for a second. “So what should I say when I see her there?”

“Start by telling her you like her costume, if she’s wearing one. Doesn’t matter if it sucks. Then go from there. Girls love to talk about themselves, so ask her stuff about herself. Show her you care but not too much.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“There’s a fine line between showing you’re interested and being creepy. So be casual. Flirt, but don’t go overboard with too many questions.”

Dustin smirked. “Ha! Sailor pun.”

Steve wasn’t having it. “Shut the hell up, Henderson.” He took a breath. “Oh, and definitely, definitely don’t follow her around the party like a lost puppy. You don’t wanna look desperate. And hey, if you manage to get the ball rolling and things look like they’re going well, you can ask her to dance with you, or who knows? Maybe she’ll even ask you.”

“Ok, but how is any of that gonna matter if she’s still obsessed with Will?”

“Look, either she’ll forget about him when you start laying down the charm, or she won’t be into you no matter what you try, and in that case, it’s just best to move on. It sounds like this might be your best shot, though, especially if it’s true they haven’t talked in a month. Of course if Will’s at that party, you’re gonna have to get to her before she gets to him.”

Dustin scoffed. “Like Will would actually go to one of these parties.”

“I don’t know. Jonathan never goes to parties, and he showed up at Tina’s party last year. Those Byers brothers are as unpredictable as they come.”

“Damn it!” Dustin exclaimed, realizing Steve was definitely right about them. “If Will shows up, I might as well not exist. I’m gonna have to get there real early if I wanna have a chance with her.”

“Yeah, somehow I doubt he’s gonna show up early to a party hosted by someone he doesn’t talk to anymore.”

Dustin nodded in agreement. “All right, enough about me. What’s going on in the world of post-grad Steve? Besides scooping ice cream and the will-he-won’t he with Robin?”

“Umm… hmm, well the thing is…” Steve scratched his head.

“Don’t you have a plan or something? Like in the long term? There’s no way it’s this dead-end job.”

“No shit,” the older teen said roughly. His expression softened. “I… I don’t really know. My dad probably wouldn’t mind if I joined him at his firm, but the last thing I want to do is work for that grade-A asshole. I guess I haven’t really thought much about what’s next. This was just supposed to be a summer job, but when it came time to decide whether I wanted to stay with Scoops or move on, I didn’t have anything else lined up, so I stayed. My whole life, there was always something next. The next grade up, the next school. After high school it should have been college, but my grades weren’t good enough for that. Now, there’s no one telling me what I’m supposed to do next. It’s confusing, you know?”

Dustin nodded in sympathy for his mentor and friend. “Maybe you should start a babysitting service,” he jokingly suggested.

He scoffed. “Hire me, parents. I’ll chauffeur your kids as they get into all kinds of supernatural hijinks. I’m sure that’ll go over real well.”

“Well, there’s not much of a market for monster hunters anymore, gate being closed and all.”

“Guess that leaves me with getaway driver.”

“We got caught though!” Dustin laughed.

“I’m all out of answers, man. Besides, it’s getting late. Isn’t your mom gonna start getting worried where you’ve been?”

Dustin looked at his watch. It was 6:15pm. Dinner at the Hendersons’ was almost always at 6:30pm sharp. “Shit! I gotta get home, or she’ll start tearing up the house looking for me. Thanks for the advice, Steve!” Dustin took off in a hurry, leaving Steve in the dust.

“Anytime,” he replied not loud enough for Dustin to hear.  
______________________________________________________________________________

As he sat up in his bed with his knees bent up, Will scribbled furiously with a pencil on a drawing he was working on. He had really taken his time on this one: it depicted the shadow man holding up marionette strings controlling Will, me and the rest of the party members as he flashed that same unsettling grin I remembered so vividly from my vision. All of us appeared lost and powerless to his manipulations of our strings. The imagery was downright macabre.

It was evening time, and the Byers family had already eaten dinner by this point. The rain had not let up from earlier, and Will could still hear it pouring down outside his window as he labored over his artwork.

His mind, however, was somewhere other than his drawing. More specifically it was on what Ms. Chung had told him earlier, that eventually he and I would find our way back to each other. _No, I don’t want that,_ he told himself. _Things are easier this way. At least now I won’t be hurt by Robert or anyone else._

He continued to shade in the shadow man’s face as the last words I had said to him began to echo in his head: _“I DON’T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU ANYMORE!!!”_ The words haunted him, their finality constantly reminding him why it was foolish to believe we’d ever find our way back to each other, why it was not worth his time to think about me. As he vividly recalled that painful memory, he gritted his teeth and pressed harder and harder on the page, the area he was shading getting darker and darker with graphite until it was completely black. Rage etched on Will’s face, he imagined himself screaming back at me with the same sense of fury instead of running off as he had that night. _SCREW YOU, ROBERT! I DON’T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH YOU EITHER!!!”_

The pencil tip snapped, rolling down the page onto his lap. Coming back to his senses, Will plucked it up and set it on his nightstand. He examined his drawing, realizing the mess he had made of the shadow man’s face. The picture was ruined. No eraser could reduce the extreme amount of graphite without smearing it. He crumbled the picture up and threw it at his wastebasket, but he missed, and it landed on the floor in front of the bin. He grumbled and stood up, taking the pencil tip with him as he went over to his wastebasket and threw both away.

Not knowing what to do now, since he had finished his homework before dinner, Will scanned his room for something, anything to occupy his time. He was too awake to sleep.

 _Music,_ he decided. _That always makes me feel better._ He searched for his walkman, which he hadn’t used in a while but had come to enjoy for its portability and ease of use compared to record players. His favorite part though was being able to put on a pair of headphones and transport himself into his own little world where it was just him and his music while drowning out any outside noise or disturbance.

Will peeked under his bed and found the walkman resting on top of a few old drawings. He blew the dust off of it and coughed a bit as the particles flew around in the air in front of him. Taking his finger, he brushed off the rest and plopped back down onto his bed.

He quickly checked to make sure there was a tape inside, and confirmed there was. He didn’t really care which tape it was, as long as there was one. He pressed play. “Love Will Tear Us Apart” by Joy Division started playing. Immediately, Will recognized the tape inside his walkman: _Will’s Mixtape Vol 1_. He quickly pressed pause and ejected the tape, pulling it out. He stared at it for a moment, considering whether to trash it. It was a relic of a bygone era, one he constantly tried to avoid thinking about. Deciding music was music, he sighed and put it back in, pressed play and then fast forwarded to the next song. Will didn’t remember where he had put the tape case with the track list, so he scrubbed through the tape blind. He stopped fast forwarding when he heard an all too familiar synth and drum kit beat. It was “Take on Me.” He listened to catchy track, unable to avoid recalling that summer day when everyone was trying to rescue Lucas, and the two of us had run off to his room to avoid sitting through Mike’s explanation to Jonathan and Nancy of what we had experienced in the mansion in the woods. It was then that we had discovered this song and danced with each other for the first time — both by his suggestion.

Overcome with nostalgia and realizing the track sounded much too peppy for how he was feeling, he paused it about a minute and a half into the song, where the second verse was just about to lead into the chorus. He took off his headphones and set them down next to him on the bed. He started to sing the chorus aloud to himself at a slower tempo, his voice soft and shaky but also soulful: “Take on me / take me on / I’ll be gone in a day or… two…”

His voice broke as he started to tear up. _Who am I kidding? I miss you, Robert. I haven’t stopped missing you. Not for one second. But it doesn’t matter, though, does it?_ Tears streamed down his face as he whimpered softly, not wanting to attract attention from his mom or brother through his thin bedroom walls. He had (not intentionally of course) caused them more than their share of grief over the last couple of years.

Will leaned over the side of his bed and pulled Jennifer’s invitation out of his backpack. He unfolded it and stared at it intently. A pang of guilt hit him. He had avoided Jennifer for a whole month, yet despite that she had invited him to her party and hadn’t shown any sign of resentment. _I’m going,_ he decided, rubbing both his eyes with his right hand. _And this time I’m going to tell you the truth… all of it._  
______________________________________________________________________________

At around the same time that evening, Max and Mike were sitting in the Wheeler’s basement. Mrs. Wheeler had just a few minutes ago answered the door for the redhead and been shocked to see her standing out in the pouring rain, her clothes soaking wet. She then had called Mike down from his room. The raven-haired boy had been equally surprised to see her and wondered what could possibly be so urgent that she had biked all the way over in the rain instead of just contacting him via Supercom, but as soon as their eyes met he knew it was really important.

“So what brings you over on a night like this?” he asked awkwardly.

“We need to talk,” Max answered firmly.

Mike gave her a confused look. “About what?”

“About Robert and Will. We’re gonna get them back together.” She took her copy of Jennifer’s Halloween party invitation out of her lime green raincoat pocket and handed it to Mike.

Mike peered down at the invitation (identical to the one El had handed him earlier during nutrition) briefly before looking up at Max and nodding wholeheartedly in agreement. Max’s lips curled into a smile.


	21. The Halloween Party

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait! I really wanted to take my time and get this right because this chapter and the next are so crucial to the overall story. Enjoy!

As the party continued to rage on below us, Max and I made our way up the stairs to the second story of Jennifer’s huge house. She pointed to the second door on the right in the hallway. “Here looks good. After you.”

Hesitantly I approached the door and opened it. On the other side I found a boy dressed as Marty McFly sitting on the edge of the bathtub with two hazel eyes I knew all too well staring back at me in total shock. I immediately got butterflies in my stomach as I stood completely frozen in the doorway. “Will?”  
______________________________________________________________________________

**Earlier that evening…**

“Trick or treat!” A group of teens my age shouted in unison outside my front door around 6:45pm on Halloween night. There was a redhead who was dressed like Molly Ringwald’s character Claire Standish from _The Breakfast Club_ , a short James Bond with curly hair slicked back with Farah Fawcett spray, and a tall roguish looking boy dressed like John Bender also from _The Breakfast Club_.

“Hey guys,” I laughed, recognizing my friends.

“Great Scott! You didn’t tell me you were going as Doc Brown for Halloween!” Dustin exclaimed, admiring my costume. I was wearing a white jump suit and yellow rubber gloves with the radioactive logo on the back of the wrists, as well as my red and blue hibiscus floral print shirt underneath that everyone seemed to love so much. And to complete the look, a white crazy haired wig.

Dustin was wearing a rented white dinner jacket, black tuxedo pants, a white dress shirt and a black bow tie. His hair was styled the same way as he had done it for the Snowball last year, pushed back and held in place with Farrah Fawcett spray.

“It was a secret,” I smirked.

“He didn’t tell me either,” Max assured him. She was wearing a light pink v-neck blouse with a high-waisted dark brown skirt that draped past her knees, a brown leather belt and knee high dark brown boots. She had shown up with a new haircut this morning in biology, her hair now down to her shoulders and teased out a bit while it had previously reached down to her chest. She also had eyeliner, foundation and pink lip gloss on, which was quite notable because Max almost never wore makeup.

“Come in,” I ushered them in.

Max, Dustin and Jack stepped inside.

“Oh my, you all look fantastic!” my mom’s excited voice came from behind me in the living room. She hurried over to us, all smiles. “Dustin, looking suave in that tux.”

“The name’s Bond. James Bond,” Dustin said, attempting a British accent. My mom chuckled.

“Hi, I’m Jack. It’s nice to finally meet you.” Jack greeted my mom, extending his black fingerless gloved hand out to her. He was wearing a white long sleeve shirt under a red plaid flannel shirt with the sleeves cut off, gray baggy pants with a chain wallet, and a light blue denim jacket. He even had a wig with John’s dark brown center part haircut. Jack had clearly put a lot of time and effort into scrounging for all the pieces for his John Bender costume, and I had a strong feeling it was all to impress Max.

My mom shook his hand with a warm smile. “Linda. Pleased to meet you too.”

“You guys ready to head out?” I asked my friends hastily, wanting to leave as soon as we could to avoid any potential awkward conversations my mom might start with Jack. I had mentioned him to her a few times and always in a positive light, but that had been before things got weird between us.

“No one’s leaving before I get a picture of you all in your costumes!” my mom demanded.

She picked my camera up off the coffee table in the living room.

We all posed together by the front door.

“Say, ‘Halloween!’” she instructed.

“Halloween!” we all said, grinning.

The flash went off as she took the photo. “That’s a keeper! All right, I won’t hold you kids up any longer! Have fun and stay safe!”

“Thanks, we will,” I promised.

The four of us left my house and circled around the side. We stashed our old pillowcases we would have been using to carry candy in a bush because we had other plans — plans my mom didn’t know about, and for good reason. There was no way in hell she’d allow me go to a big house party with alcohol present, so we had to convince her we were only trick-or-treating. Though how I was going to explain coming home without any candy I hadn’t quite figured out yet.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Elsewhere in the neighborhood, Mike, El, and Will were in fact trick-or-treating. They had already stopped at the first few houses on their route, which started right near Mike’s house at the end of Maple Street.

Mike had loved _The Breakfast Club_ so much that not only was it responsible for getting him into acting, but he had also decided to dress up as Emilio Estevez’s character from the film Andrew Clark for Halloween this year and had persuaded El to dress as shy oddball Allison Reynolds, played in the film by Ally Sheedy. He managed to find a generic royal blue varsity jacket at the Starcourt Mall and had his mom help him add an “S” letter to the front as well as stitch “Andy” above it. Sam Goody had sold replicas of the State Championship patch from Andrew’s jacket for a limited time with records of the soundtrack from the movie, so he happened to have the patch lying around the house from when Nancy had bought the soundtrack months ago. His mom ironed it on his jacket for him. To complete the look, Mike had a royal blue zip up hoodie and a plain white t-shirt as well as a pair of slim light blue jeans.

El had visited a thrift store in Indianapolis with Hopper last weekend to find pieces for Allison’s costume. There she managed to find a black oversized cardigan sweater, a long gray skirt, and a gray sling bag. She bought a black patterned scarf, gray leggings, and black Converse sneakers at the Starcourt Mall. She also wore a pair of white socks over the leggings. All together El looked the part just about perfectly.

While Mike had told me he and El were doing a Breakfast Club couples costume, I was completely unaware that Will had decided to dress up as Marty McFly. We had never discussed our Halloween costume plans before our fight, and since he had also decided to surprise Mike and El, neither of them had known either until tonight. Will had on a dark red t shirt under a blue gingham button down shirt, both tucked into a pair of light blue skinny jeans held up by black suspenders. Jonathan had let him borrow his light blue Levis denim jacket, which was a little large on him, but still worked a treat. On top of all of that Will had on a red puffy vest that Joyce had bought for him on condition that he would actually wear it outside of just this costume, and finally on his left wrist he wore his usual black digital Casio watch.

“So El, what do you think so far?” Mike asked his girlfriend, trying to determine how much fun she was having trick-or-treating. They had been out in the neighborhood for about half an hour already.

El had remained fairly quiet thus far, partly because she had a lot on her mind that was making her anxious, but also because she had been trying to take in the whole trick-or-treating experience, doing what Mike had instructed her to do: ring the doorbell or knock and say, “Trick-or-treat!” when someone answered the door. The person would then give her a piece of candy or two that she’d stick in her bag. She remembered how badly she had wanted to go last year, but now that she was actually experiencing it, she found the whole ordeal pretty odd. Still El certainly couldn’t complain about the free candy.

“It’s… interesting — maybe a little repetitive, though.”

“I like to make a game out of it — finding the best houses, the ones that give out the most and the best candies, although the last part’s kind of subjective, I guess,” Mike tried to encourage her.

“What’s your favorite candy, El?” Will asked.

“Kit Kat,” El answered. “I like the crunchy wafers mixed with the chocolate. What about yours, Will?”

“Reese’s pieces,” Will replied with a faint smile.

“Hey, they’re some houses on Cornwallis that I’m pretty sure give out both of those. Or we could go up to Loch Nora. They give out the king sized bars there,” Mike suggested.

“Either’s fine,” she shrugged. El didn’t really have a preference one way or another, just as long as she could get some chocolate candy, and get to the party at a decent time.

“Will, what about you?” Mike asked.

By this point, Will had already tuned out of their conversation because something, or rather someone, had caught his eye. Farther down the street there was a teen dressed as Doc Brown walking with three other friends: one in a white tux and the others as two additional members of the Breakfast Club. There was something weirdly familiar about that Doc Brown, about all four of them really, but Will wasn’t quite sure what, since he could only see them from behind and at a great distance. They were headed down Oak Street in the direction of Jennifer’s house. Something inside Will, a voice in his head perhaps, urged him to break away from his friends and get a closer look.

“Will!” Mike said loudly to get his attention when he didn’t respond.

Will was shaken out of his trance. “Huh?”

“Which place do you wanna go?”

“Can you guys wait a sec? There’s some…umm… really cool decorations down at the corner I wanna check out,” Will fibbed.

Mike gave Will a funny look. “Umm, sure. Just don’t take too long. We still gotta hit some more houses before we go to the party.”

Will took off in a hurry, attempting to follow the weirdly familiar group of teens he spotted.

“Is he okay?” El asked her boyfriend, watching Will run off.

“I don’t know. Maybe he’s experiencing some anniversary effect. This day’s gotta be pretty weird for him considering what happened last year.” El was well aware of what Mike was referencing. “He probably just went to clear his head. I’m sure he’ll be back soon.”

“Do you think he knows Robert’s gonna be at the party?” El wondered.

“Can’t know for sure, but neither of us have told him, and Max certainly wouldn’t have, so probably not.”

“And you really think this is gonna work?”

“It has to,” Mike said determinedly.

Will started off toward the intersection of Oak and Cornwallis. By the time Mike had accepted his excuse to run off, he had lost sight of the four suspects amongst the crowd of trick-or-treaters, but he was determined to catch up to them no matter what. Investigating strange situations was something Will had grown accustomed to over the past couple of years: first when he was spirited away to the Upside Down, and he had relied on his investigative and survival skills to stay alive and hide from the demogorgon for as long as he could before eventually succumbing to dehydration and exhaustion and being captured; and more recently this past summer when curiosity got the best of him, and he agreed to explore the deserted mansion in the woods, which led to him using his investigative instinct to not only find Lucas’s unconscious body inside the mansion, but also successfully follow Lucas’s trail in his vision. Now that his life or any of his friend’s lives weren’t in danger, there was almost a thrill to it — following a lead, trying to solve a mystery.

He walked briskly, brushing past trick-or-treaters of various ages in all sorts of costumes, from scary to humorous to downright adorable. One notable and new costume he spotted someone wearing was Freddy Krueger from the slasher film _A Nightmare on Elm Street,_ which he had begged his mom to watch with me last November. It had released in theaters just after El had closed the gate. His mom had told him, “Absolutely not,” at the time since it was rated R, and she believed it much too scary and violent for him, especially after everything he had gone through. Eventually when it released on VHS earlier this year, she relented and rented it for him to watch. Will invited me to come over and watch it, which I of course did. Ironically enough, after finally watching it he had nightmares for a whole week. While I had also had trouble sleeping afterward, at least my nightmares hadn’t combined elements of the movie and Upside Down-related traumas.

Will shuddered and bit his lip as he passed by the older teen wearing the Freddy Krueger costume and mask, thinking not only of those nightmares but also back to last year when after Mike left him behind in a huff of anger for having okayed Max hanging out with us, some older teens had tried to scare him and ended up triggering his “now-memories.” This year, however, neither this teen nor anyone else on the street paid him any mind. Will started to have hope that maybe this Halloween wouldn’t be so bad after all. He was proud of his costume, he had already amassed a good amount of candy so far, and there was no Mind Flayer chasing him this year. The only thing missing was…

There he is, Will’s eyes lit up as he spotted the teen in the Doc Brown costume about fifty feet or so away. _Why does he seem so familiar?_ Will wondered. _And it can’t be a coincidence that two of his friends are also dressed as Breakfast Club characters, and different ones at that, right?_ He kept his distance for now, trying to determine whether they were going to stop at a house to trick-or-treat. Will noticed they didn’t seem to be carrying any sacks of candy and also seemed to be heading in a hurry in the direction of Elm Street. _Could they be going to the party too?_ Just before he could begin to close the distance enough to potentially identify them, Mike and El came running from behind him.

“There you are!” Mike called out, panting.

Startled, Will turned around.

“We started to worry something bad happened to you when you didn’t come back,” El said between heavy breaths.

“No, nothing bad happened,” Will sighed. He turned back to see if he could still see the mysterious Doc Brown and his friends, but they had disappeared into the night. _Damn it, they’re gone. Guess some mysterious aren’t meant to be solved,_ he thought to himself in disappointment.

“Were they worth it? The decorations?” Mike asked.

Will looked confused at what Mike was talking about at first, but he quickly remembered that that was the excuse he had used to leave them. “Oh, um, no they weren’t really as cool up close.”

Mike studied his smaller friend for a moment. He wasn’t entirely convinced that Will had really run off just to look at decorations, but he decided not to press it. He looked at his watch. 7:00pm. “Maybe we should just head down Cornwallis and circle back up Elm to get to her house. The party’s already started, and Loch Nora’s kind of far to get all the way there and back in time. Plus, we’re already here.” He pointed to the street sign. They had reached the intersection of Oak and Cornwallis.

El and Will nodded in agreement.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Dozens of costumed teenagers were flocking toward the Hayes residence. There was a long line to get inside and plenty of cars parked outside on the curb. The line moved pretty quickly, but we still had to wait around for about five minutes or so, our anticipation quickly growing all the while.

As soon as we stepped inside, our ears were bombarded with the classic Halloween track “Monster Mash” booming from the speakers and loud banter from the already large crowd of guests in her living room. Almost everyone was in some costume or another, some having put more effort into theirs than others. Most people were standing around chatting and drinking, while a few were dancing and still others were sloppily making out. Jennifer’s house was huge, not creepy mansion in the woods huge, but similar in size to Steve’s. Her parents must have been pretty wealthy. I wondered whether they might be out of town tonight, because I couldn’t possibly believe they’d stand by and allow the Hayes sisters to throw such a huge outrageous booze-filled party. Jennifer and Michelle had put up lots of Halloween decorations around the house, including various bat and pumpkin stickers on the walls and mirrors as well as strings of lights and orange streamers hung up all over the place. The stairs to the second floor had been blocked off using a bunch of the streamers wrapped around the bottom uprights of the staircase. It appeared the Hayes sisters did not want anyone going upstairs.

“This is so cool!” Dustin exclaimed, his mouth agape. “Our first high school party.”

“Yeah! Sharon never told me they were this big!” Jack looked around in awe.

I turned to Max. “You sure about this? It seems kind of crazy.”

“It’ll be fun, I promise,” she reassured me.

I spotted Jennifer engrossed in some conversation with her cheer friends on the other side of the room. She was dressed as Madonna, wearing the black dress and blue leggings costume I recognized from the “Like a Virgin” music video. Jennifer’s hair was also curled and styled the same way as the pop star’s. I leaned in toward Dustin and pointed to her. “Dude, she’s right over there. You gonna talk to her or what?”

Dustin looked over at her briefly and shook his head. “Not yet, she looks busy. I’ll wait for an opening.”

I frowned in disappointment. Dustin had made it clear earlier how badly he wanted to talk to her, but it seemed like maybe he just lacked the confidence.

He pointed toward the kitchen, which had various snacks and drinks laid out on the counter tops. “Anyone wanna grab a beer with me?”

“Me!” Jack bursted out enthusiastically.

“I’ll pass,” Max turned down the offer.

“You guys go for it,” I encouraged them. After hearing about Nancy’s bad experience drinking at a Halloween party last year, I was hesitant to try doing it myself.

“Suit yourselves,” Dustin said.

Dustin and Jack headed toward the kitchen and grabbed a couple of bottles of cheap domestic beer from the cooler. Jack found a bottle opener laying around on the countertop and opened both their bottles.

Jack handed Dustin’s bottle back. “Cheers,” he said with a grin.

“Cheers,” Dustin echoed.

They clung their bottles together and took their first ever sips of beer, Max and I watching them from a distance and seeing their reactions to the taste. Their faces contorted a bit in mild disgust, but they kept on drinking so it couldn’t have been all that bad. The two boys started to chat. I had no idea what they could be talking about but they seemed in high spirits.

“It’s pretty funny, huh?” Max said keeping her eyes on Jack and Dustin.

“What?” I shot her a confused look.

“Jack randomly showing up in that Bender costume while I’m going as Claire.”

“Yeah… totally,” I said, trying my best to hide my lack of surprise at this turnout.

Jack grabbed a red plastic cup and scooped some alcoholic punch out of the bowl. He took a small sip of it, and then proceeded to take a larger gulp, clearly enjoying the taste of it much more than the beer.

“I mean I know I told him what I was going as a couple of weeks ago, but for him to turn around and coordinate his costume with mine and not even tell me…” She turned to face me. “Did he happen to mention anything about it to you?”

I shook my head. “No. I had no clue.” Although I hadn’t been all that surprised with this turnout, it wasn’t because I knew he was going to do it beforehand, but rather because it was exactly the kind of grand gesture I could see Jack doing to woo Max. If I knew one thing about him, it was that he was hardly ever subtle.

Her gaze returned to the pair drinking in the kitchen. “Huh.”

“I guess if Mike and El were with us tonight, we’d have almost the whole Breakfast Club,” I joked.

Max chuckled. “Yeah, that would have been pretty awesome. By the way, love your costume — way cooler than last year’s. Then again, anything’s better than a sheet ghost,” she teased.

“You know there’re only four Ghostbusters, and I drew the short straw!” I whined.

Max laughed. “Even a whole year later, it’s still fun giving you shit for it. Who would have thought? And the funniest part was there ended up being _two_ Venkmans! You could have been Winston!”

“That’s what I said! At least when we realized nobody else was wearing their costumes to school, I didn’t have to walk around wearing mine all day. I just stuffed my sheet in my backpack and was like, ‘Well, good luck guys,’” I laughed. “Anyway, thanks. Your costume’s really cool too.”

“Thanks,” Max smiled.

The current song ended and whatever mixtape was playing all the party’s music switched over to the next track, “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go,” which was one of the biggest radio hits of 1985. Both Max’s and my eyes lit up with excitement. We both loved the song, and who could blame us? It was catchy as hell. “Dustin! Jack! Get over here and dance with us!” Max shouted at them.

They threw their bottles and cups away and hustled over to us. Soon enough we all started to dance together in a little huddle, waving our arms around wildly and shimmying as we sung along, all of us knowing the lyrics by heart since the song was on the radio and MTV so frequently.

A little less than four minutes and a whole lot of head bobbing later, that song “Don’t You (Forget About Me)” from the end of _The Breakfast Club_ came on.

“Holy shit! What a coincidence!” Dustin gawked, gesturing to Max and Jack.

All of us agreed how funny it was that that specific song came on and continued on dancing. At one point in the middle of the song Jack did the classic fist bump that Bender does in the final frame of the film. Dustin almost fell to the floor laughing, while Max and I chuckled at Jack’s recreation of the iconic pose.

I could tell by the way Jack kept his eyes on Max almost the whole time we were dancing that he was still very much interested in her. Still, he never once asked her to dance. I wondered why he was so hesitant to make a move.

What had at first seemed like an intimidating and totally crazy social gathering quickly turned into the most fun I had had in ages — even more so than grabbing lunch at Benny’s with Max and Jack at the beginning of the month. I guess Max had been right after all. It did feel really good to let loose after the month I’ve had. Still I couldn’t help but feel like something, or rather someone, was missing.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Meanwhile in Jennifer’s spacious backyard (which was complete with a swimming pool), Todd and Lucas were hanging out with their teammates and some of the cheer squad. While their friends were all chatting with each other, the two of them were leaned up against a wall focused on a certain shirtless older boy dressed as Rambo hanging around by the beer kegs talking to some senior girls who were fawning over him. It was none other than Max’s stepbrother Billy, his usual cigarette sticking out of his mouth.

“He thinks he’s so cool, doesn’t he?” Todd said with disgust while holding a red plastic cup with some spiked punch. He was dressed as Brand from _The Goonies_ , with a red bandana tied around his head, a heather gray cut off sleeved t-shirt, and blue shorts over matching heather gray sweatpants. His dirty blonde hair had grown a bit longer since the beginning of the school year, now matching actor Josh Brolin’s length in the movie.

“He ain’t shit,” Lucas replied, taking a swig of his beer bottle. He was dressed as Axel Foley from _Beverly Hills Cop_ , complete with a fake mustache, black varsity jacket and light blue jeans.

“You’re damn right he ain’t shit. I think it’s about time Hawkins crowned a new Keg King, don’t you think?” the blonde sophomore declared, taking a big swig to finish what was left in his cup.

“You really think you can beat him?” Lucas asked his older friend, not quite confident in his ability to beat someone two years his senior.

Todd loomed over Lucas and crushed the now empty cup in his hand. “Oh, don’t worry. I’m gonna do way more than that.” He dropped the cup on the ground and took off.

Lucas watched intently as Todd swaggered over to Billy.

“Hey, Hargrove!” Todd yelled at the senior.

Billy turned around to face the sophomore, his ever-present smirk fading as soon as he made eye contact with Todd. “You looking for the kiddie table? It’s not here, bud.”

“You and me, keg contest. Right fuckin’ now,” Todd insisted.

Billy burst out laughing, his groupies soon joining in.

Todd stood in place with a stone-faced expression, unfazed by the laughter directed at him.

“In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a big boy party where we drink big boy drinks. So why don’t you go home to your mommy and daddy before things get really embarrassing for you?” Billy mocked him in a patronizing tone.

“Aww, is King Billy scared he’s gonna lose his crown to a kiddie like me?” Todd shot back with a smirk of his own.

Billy’s groupies oohed in response to Todd’s comeback. A twisted smile crept across Billy’s face. If nothing else, he was impressed by the gall of the underclassman. He stepped closer to the sophomore, until there were only inches between their faces. They were of equal height, both standing around five feet ten inches. Billy blew a puff of smoke on him. “Okay, Phillips. I’ll bite. When I win, though, I better not see your puny ass again here tonight or at any other party the rest of the year, or I’ll beat the living shit out of you, and you can kiss that pretty face and precious football career of yours goodbye. How’s that sound?”

“Deal,” Todd agreed without hesitation, extending his hand out toward Billy.

“All right then, let’s get this shit over with,” the older teen smirked. They shook hands, both of them squeezing the other’s hand as tight as they could as though it were some form of competition of strength.

Word spread quickly around the party that Todd and Billy were facing off, and a crowd started to form around the two, rowdily cheering as they headed over to the kegs. “Hungry Like the Wolf” by Duran Duran started playing over the speakers.

A senior girl dressed as what could only be described as a sexy witch, stepped between the two boys and their kegs. A tight short black cleavage-revealing dress hugged her curves, her legs covered by thigh high black sheer stockings. Her long voluminous blonde hair fell gracefully past her chest under her pointy black hat, and her black pumps gave her an extra four inches of height. Her makeup was anything but understated — bright red lipstick, heavy mascara, and smoky eyeliner accentuating her already beautiful features. Michelle Hayes was a bone-fide bombshell, and she damn well knew it.

Billy and Todd stared each other down intently. A couple of Billy’s friends, one of them in a Terminator costume lifted his legs up over the keg. Lucas and another friend of Todd’s named Jamie who was dressed as the Karate Kid did the same for the sophomore.

Michelle smacked her lips. “All right boys, last one chugging wins,” she declared.

The crowd counted down. “Three… two… one…CHUG!”

As the two contenders chugged from their kegs, the crowd counted off the seconds. Lucas watched intently. “You got this, Todd! Beat his ass!” he shouted as he held Todd over the keg.

“…thirty-nine, forty, forty-one, forty-two, forty three, forty-four, forty five…”

Billy, despite having broken his record last year of forty-two seconds, was unable to keep going past forty-five. Appearing confused when he heard the counting continue on, he looked over at his adversary and saw to his horror that Todd was still chugging.

“…forty-six, forty-seven, forty-eight, forty-nine, fifty,” the crowd chanted.

Todd let the keg hose drop out of his mouth after the fifty-second mark. Lucas and Jamie helped him back on his feet, and he spat out the remaining beer left in his mouth into the air like a geyser bursting.

The crowd cheered wildly.

“Let’s hear it for our new Keg King!” Jamie shouted at the crowd.

“Todd! Todd! Todd! Todd!” the crowd shouted, including Lucas.

Todd went right up to a totally bamboozled Billy, looking smug as hell, Jamie and Lucas behind him.

“Looks like we got ourselves a new Keg King, Hargrove!” Jamie taunted him.

“Yeah, eat it, Billy!” Lucas got a dig in at his enemy.

Billy glared at Lucas, a cigarette in his mouth. The two had plenty of history, but he remained silent now, having promised Max he would stay away from her friends after she got the better of him with the help of a sedative about a year ago.

Todd leaned in extra close to Billy. “Your days of running this school — they’re over, Hargrove. Hawkins is _my_ school now.”

“Like hell it is,” Billy snarled.

“Hey, don’t look so down, bud. It’s just the circle of life. Besides, I wouldn’t worry too much. Come next year, no one’s even gonna remember King Billy,” he smirked, giving Billy a firm pat on the back.

Billy’s face contorted with rage, his hands balling into fists. “You little shit!” Billy lost control of his temper and tried to attack Todd, but Billy’s friends held him back, perhaps in reverence to the new Keg King. “Get the hell off me!” he protested, trying to shake them off.

Todd snorted and walked away in total victory, Jamie repeatedly patting him on the back. They headed inside the house.

Following behind them, Lucas frowned, a sense of unease rushing over him. It wasn’t that he wasn’t happy with the outcome. He had been just as eager as Todd to knock Billy down a peg, and who could blame him? Billy had almost ran him over on the road, tried to attack him, and been consistently abusive toward Max while trying to keep her away from him. It was more that he was perturbed by what Todd had said while gloating to Billy— that Hawkins was _his_ school now. It seemed apparent Todd didn’t actually hate what Billy stood for like Lucas did, he wanted to _be_ Billy. This was a side of Todd he had never seen before, and though he might have been able to pass it off as nothing more than some drunken hell raising, he couldn’t help but wonder whether Max had perhaps been right about Todd after all.  
______________________________________________________________________________

I could hear the chants of “Todd! Todd! Todd!” as a crowd of people followed Todd inside from the backyard.

“If I didn’t know any better, I’d say Todd’s here,” I observed sarcastically.

“That guys a total dick,” Jack slurred with a dopey grin on his face.

Max chuckled. “Damn straight.”

“And following not far behind him is his trusty sidekick, now complete with an evil mustache,” Dustin remarked, pointing Lucas out in the crowd. We all watched as Lucas followed Todd past the kitchen and into the living room, seemingly not noticing us. I studied Lucas in that moment, noticing that he seemed not quite as excited as everyone else around him.

“Let’s get some fresh air,” Max suggested.

We all agreed and went outside to the backyard, but not before Jack and Dustin stopped back at the kitchen to drink some more.

Unbeknownst to us, right as we headed out back, the front door opened and Mike, El, and Will stepped inside.

“Whoa,” El gasped, her mouth slightly agape as she looked around the living room, taking in all the wildness of the party.

“It’s so crowded,” Will frowned. “How am I supposed to find Jennifer in all this?” He gestured at the mass of costumed teens in Jennifer’s living room.

“Don’t worry about it, Will. El will find her, right El?”

She nodded.

“Why don’t we grab some refreshments in the meantime?” Mike pointed toward the tableau of snacks and drinks on the kitchen counter.

Will shrugged. “I guess I am a little thirsty.”

“Great, I’ll be right back. Hopefully I’ll run into Max somewhere around here too. She is part of the Breakfast Club after all,” El reminded them, glancing over at Mike.

Mike gave her a knowing nod.

El took off, heading past the kitchen and toward the backyard. It didn’t take her very long before she spotted the four of us standing around on the back porch. “Hey, guys!” she greeted us excitedly.

“Jane! You made it!” Max exclaimed. “Your costume turned out amazing!”

“Yours too!” El squealed.

“No way, you’re Allison!” Jack joined in, his speech slightly slurred. “We’ve got, like, half the Breakfast right here.”

“And you’re Bender. That’s umm… unexpected,” El replied, giving him a funny look.

“It was a surprise,” he grinned.

I rolled my eyes.

“Dustin, wow, you’re all dressed up! Who are you supposed to be?” El inquired of the curly-haired boy.

“James Bond from _A View to a Kill._ Remember we all saw it back in May?” Dustin reminded her.

“Oh, right. That was a pretty fun movie.” She turned toward me, smiling. “And Robert, I almost didn’t even recognize you.”

“I guess that means it’s a good costume,” I beamed.

She nodded. “It’s perfect.”

Dustin, while casually looking around the backyard, spotted Jennifer sitting by herself on a bench. She was staring off into the distance, looking somewhat despondent. Her friends had all gone inside to follow Todd, the newly crowned keg king.

“You should talk to her,” El suggested, noticing who Dustin was staring at.

Dustin sighed. “You’re right. It’s time.” He shook himself loose. “I’m going for it, guys. Wish me luck,” he said confidently.

“Go get her, tiger.” Jack slurred, giving him a thumbs up. Max and I smiled at him in encouragement. I was relieved he was finally making a move.

Dustin adjusted his bow tie and swaggered over to Jennifer.

“Hey, Max, I think you and I need to go have some ‘girl-talk,’” El said, grabbing Max’s hand and starting to pull her away.

“I’ll be right back, guys, don’t go anywhere,” Max instructed us.

Jack and I waved as she and El hurried off back inside.  
______________________________________________________________________________

Dustin sat down next to Jennifer on the bench. “Hey there, Jennifer,” Dustin said, trying to sound cool.

“Oh, hey Dustin,” she greeted him warmly.

“Nice costume. Madonna, right?”

“Yeah.”

“You look really pretty.”

“Thanks,” Jennifer blushed. She studied his costume for a moment. “Who are you supposed to be?”

“The names Bond. James Bond.” Dustin tried out his British accent on her.

She giggled. “Oh, now I see the resemblance.” There was a brief moment of silence. “Your hair’s just like it was at the Snowball last year. It’s a good look for you.”

“Thanks,” Dustin’s cheeks flushed. “So…umm… if you don’t mind me asking, what are you doing sulking out here on this bench all by yourself? Aren’t you supposed to be like the life of the party, hosting it and all?”

Jennifer smiled nervously. “Sulking? I’m not sulking.”

Dustin raised an eyebrow. “So this isn’t sulking?” He proceeded to imitate the pout and closed off body language she had displayed before he came over, turning his head to look around as though paranoid about something.

She sighed, her expression more serious now. “My friends all went to watch Todd Phillips and Billy Hargrove try and outdrink each other in some keg contest. Todd won, and now they’re following him around like groupies. Not really my thing.”

“I take it you didn’t invite him.”

She shook her head. “No, my sister did. He’s the most popular boy in the lower grades, so of course he made the cut, even though she mostly invited upperclassmen.”

“Lucas hangs with him now. Before he stopped talking to us, he used to tell me all about how awesome Todd was. I’m pretty sure he looks up to him like some sort of role model, but he doesn’t seem all that cool to me.”

“He’s super shallow. He’s hooked up with Stacey a few times now. You know I don’t like Stacey very much either, but her stories about him make me actually feel kind of sorry for her.”

Dustin chuckled. “Who do you like?”

“Alice, Heather, Tina, Donna, a lot of people,” she chuckled. “Oh, and you guys, of course.”

 _Strange, she didn’t mention Will specifically,_ Dustin thought to himself. He smiled. “Well, your party’s really cool, despite some shallow people being here.”

“Thanks. You know, you’re the first person to tell me that tonight.”

Dustin gave her an incredulous look. “Really?”

She nodded. “Mmhmm.”

“You’re telling me not one other person has complimented your party?”

“It’s not a big deal, really.”

“Not a big deal? Are you kidding me? You and Michelle must have put so much effort into this whole thing. The invitations were clever, the music’s cool, those pumpkin cookies in the kitchen are delicious by the way, and all the fancy string lights, well that’s just the cherry on top.”

Jennifer smiled. “Wow, umm…”

“Sorry, that was a little much, wasn’t it?”

“No, it’s okay. Thank you. That means a lot.”

There was a moment of silence between them as they sat on the bench, neither knowing what to say next. Dustin was trying to work up the courage to ask her to dance, but struggling to do so despite the boost in confidence he had just moments ago, partly fueled by his earlier alcohol consumption.

“I… uhh… better get back to my other friends. They’re probably worrying what happened to me.”

“Right. Of course.”

“I’m really glad you came, Dustin. I’ll see you around.”

Dustin smiled lightly. “Yeah, see you around.”

Jennifer got up and walked away, heading back inside.

Dustin’s face fell in disappointment. The moment was gone. He had waited too long. Now, he was the one sulking on the bench by himself and could only imagine what Steve would be telling him now — that he didn’t ask her enough questions, that maybe she was still into Will after all. Maybe she went off to find him and didn’t want to hurt his feelings because she somehow knew. As his imagination started to run wild, he continued to feel worse and worse.  
______________________________________________________________________________

El returned to Mike and Will, who were now standing around near the stairs after having grabbed sodas in the kitchen.

“I told Jennifer you’re here and want to talk to her privately. She said to wait for her upstairs in the bathroom.”

“The bathroom?” Will looked confused. “Why there?”

“It’s, uh…. more private?”

“Maybe she doesn’t want people in her bedroom because it’s too messy?” Mike suggested, trying to help El out.

“I guess that would make sense,” Will said hesitantly. “But the stairs are blocked off. I don’t think they want anyone going up there.”

“That’s the point,” El said. “She said she’ll be just a few minutes, so you should head up now.”

“Okay.” Will carefully stepped over the streamers wrapped around the uprights at the bottom of the stairs. “Did she happen to mention which room’s the bathroom?”

“No, I guess she forgot to mention it. I’m sure it shouldn’t be too difficult to figure out,” El replied. “Oh, she did say not to lock the door though, because the lock is broken, and you’ll get stuck.”

Will sighed and made his way upstairs. He checked the first door on the right. It was a bedroom with pink wallpaper and a big Madonna poster — Definitely Jennifer’s. From a quick glance, her room didn’t seem messy enough to him to be embarrassed about, but it certainly wasn’t the neatest bedroom he had ever seen either. He closed her bedroom door and tried the next door over. It was a bathroom. _Bingo._ Will stepped inside, closing the door behind him, and making sure he didn’t lock it accidentally. There were makeup products, combs, and brushes lying around haphazardly on the sink countertop. Will sat down on the edge of the bath tub, staring at the bathroom door as he tapped his foot impatiently eagerly waiting for Jennifer to arrive.  
______________________________________________________________________________

“So Jack, why haven’t you made a move yet?” I asked him out of curiosity. “The night’s not getting any younger.”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. I guess I’m not so sure she even likes me back at this point. She didn’t seem all that excited about my costume,” he mumbled.

 _Gee, I wonder why trying to do a couples costume when you’re not a couple didn’t go over too well,_ I thought to myself. “You know you won’t know unless you try. Believe me,” I tried to encourage him. “Also, I’m pretty sure she got a kick out of your costume even if she didn’t exactly say it outright. You know how she can be sometimes.”

“Maybe tonight’s not the right night? I just wanna have a good time with good friends, you know? It’s Halloween night. We’re having fun. I don’t wanna spoil the fun,” he slurred. He stumbled a bit. I grabbed his arm to hold him steady.

“Wanna grab some more drinks?” he offered, a dopey grin on his face.

“No, Max told us to stay here. Besides you seem kind of… you know…”

“I’m not drunk, Robert. Scout’s honor.” He wildly swung his right arm in front of him, bending his elbow and holding his palm out in a salute.

“How much have you had already?” I inquired.

“Umm, let’s see: two beers, a couple of cups of that delicious punch…” He counted on his fingers.

“You mean the _spiked_ punch? Mike’s sister told me to stay away from that stuff.”

“It’s not a big deal. Really. I’m fine. No, wait, I’m better than fine. I feel A-MAZING!” He started laughing hysterically. “Take that Mom and Dad! Who gives a shit what you think? Not me!”

 _So that’s why he was drinking so much._  “Jack, I really don’t think you should have anymore.”

“Fine, don’t drink with me,” he frowned. “Dustin’s more fun anyway.” He walked clumsily away toward Dustin, who was still sitting alone on the bench. Things must have not gone as he had hoped with Jennifer. I started to feel bad for both Jack and Dustin now. “Hey Dustin!” Jack shouted.

“Jack, wait!” I called out, but he kept going.

Before I could start after him, Max came back in hurry from wherever she had gone with El. “Robert, we need to talk.” She looked around, noticing Jack was missing. “Wait, where did Jack go?”

“To go drink with Dustin. I told him he shouldn’t because he already had too much, so he ran off.”

“He has been acting a little loopy tonight,” Max agreed. “Dustin can handle him for now, right?”

I shrugged. “What was it you wanted to talk to me about?”

“Let’s head inside. It’s starting to get a little chilly.”

I nodded.

We slid the patio door open and headed back into the house. I was quickly reminded how loud it had been inside.

“Is everything okay between you and Jack?”

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t it be?”

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’ve been avoiding hanging out with us outside of school and barely talking to him like at all during lunch or practice? Oh, and then there was that day when you tried to sprint past him a couple of weeks ago and failed spectacularly, and you were all pissed off afterward.”

I sighed. “Okay fine. You’re right. Things are weird between us. He… umm… told me some secrets, and I haven’t told him mine ‘cause… you know, but he knows, Max. He knows I’m hiding something.” I paused for a moment. “I just feel like such a shitty friend whenever I’m around him. I’ve been so shitty to everyone. Even you.”

“To me?”

“I can’t do it, Jack. I can’t hold onto this secret anymore. It’s too awkward,” I thought out loud as though an imaginary Jack were in front of me. “The truth is, I know why he coordinated his costume with yours.”

Max raised an eyebrow. “Why?”

“He… he likes you, Max.”

Max looked completely stunned. “He _likes_ me?”

“Yeah, like a lot. Actually, those were his exact words.”

“Wow, umm… I don’t know what to say.”

“Do you like him back?”

“I... I don’t know.” She thought to herself for a moment. “God, that is super awkward that he put you in that position.”

I nodded.

“How did I not see it?”

“Maybe you didn’t want to see it?” I suggested, thinking back to my own experience. All the signs were there for Jack liking Max, but I hadn’t wanted to see them because of the crush I had developed on him. Fortunately, I was over him now, but unfortunately, the damage it had done to our friendship not even to his knowledge seemed irreversible. “I didn’t want to see it either.”

“Why?” Max gave me a puzzled look.

“Because… because it broke my heart,” I admitted solemnly.

“Wait, you…”

I nodded.

“Do you still?”

I shook my head.

She slapped my arm. “Why didn’t you tell me?!” She sighed, composing herself. “Why don’t we talk about this somewhere more private? Like upstairs,” she suggested.

I gave her a confused look as we made our way through the crowded living room. “But it’s blocked off.”

“Just means no one will disturb us. Come on.” She stepped over the streamers at the bottom of the stairs and started making her way up. I sighed and did the same.

The party continued to rage on below us as Max and I climbed the stairs to the second story. She pointed to the second door on the right in the hallway. “Here looks good. After you.”

Hesitantly I approached the door and opened it. On the other side I found a boy dressed as Marty McFly sitting on the edge of the bathtub with two hazel eyes I knew all too well staring back at me in total shock. His alarmed expression indicated that he was just as surprised to see me as I was to see him. I immediately got butterflies in my stomach as I stood completely frozen in the doorway, my hands starting to clam up.

“Will?” I broke the moment of silence between us.

“It _was_ you,” Will remarked, standing up. “The Doc Brown I saw out on the street earlier.”

“You’re Marty…”


	22. The Reunion

Before I could finish my sentence, I felt a push from behind me as Max shoved me inside the bathroom and quickly shut the door.

I spun around as I heard the thud. “Hey! What the hell, Max?!” I grabbed the door knob and turned it, but the door wouldn’t budge. She was obviously leaning up against it. 

“Let us out!” Will demanded. 

“Neither of you are leaving this bathroom until you make up with each other!” her muffled voice came through from the other side of the door. 

I let out an exasperated groan and turned back toward Will, folding my arms. “What are you even doing in here anyway?” 

“El told me Jennifer was supposed to meet me in here. I was gonna finally tell her the truth,” he explained, sounding irritated.

I scoffed. “I guess the Breakfast Club had other plans.” 

“Guess so,” Will mumbled, looking away from me.

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Downstairs El and Mike stood side by side leaning up against the wall adjacent to the staircase, eagerly waiting to see what would happen between Will and me. Just a few minutes ago they had hidden themselves amongst the crowd, watching intently as Max led me through the living room and up the stairs. 

El’s mind was somewhere else now, however, her eyes staring blankly ahead of her as her thoughts filled with dread. She hadn’t been all that excited about this party; her only reason for wanting to be here at all was to help Max and Mike with their plan to get Will and me back together. Her response to Jennifer’s invitation had been decidedly lukewarm at best. El had been careful not to make any promises, given her history with the blonde. She couldn’t help but feel extremely awkward every time she was around Jennifer. Her whole friendship with her was based on a lie, the lie that Will had been straight and single. At least the latter part was now true. El was wholly convinced that Jennifer wouldn’t have been as interested in talking to her for it not had been for her connection to Will. So when it came to showing up at Jennifer’s party, the last thing El wanted was to run into her. She had successfully dodged the blonde earlier while she had gone outside to grab Max, but the longer she stayed here, the more likely it would be that Jennifer would spot her and god forbid, ask her for Will’s whereabouts. 

Mike had fine-tuned his ability to read his girlfriend’s emotional state through nothing more than her facial expressions over the many months they’ve been together, so he easily sensed something was wrong as he studied her current expression. “El, what’s on your mind?” 

El blinked and turned her head toward him, looking up into his gentle eyes. “I… I can’t be here.” 

“Why not?” 

“I just can’t. I’m sorry, Mike. I have to go.” 

Before Mike could say anything, El bolted away, heading toward the front door. She opened it and darted outside.

“El!” Mike cried out. He raced out the door after her. He spotted the brunette sitting on the edge of the sidewalk, her knees up and her feet planted on the road. El’s head was resting in her lap, her candy filled sling bag on the ground to her right. She was whimpering softly. Mike hurried over to his girlfriend, sitting down next to her on the opposite side of her bag. He wrapped his right arm around El, pulling her toward him. 

“I’m a liar, Mike,” she sobbed as she leaned up against the tall boy. “Jennifer thinks I’m her friend, but all I’ve done is lie to her.”

Mike thought to himself for a moment, trying to figure out what to say to make her feel better. “Sometimes… people have to lie… you know, to protect someone they care about. Like back when we first found you in the woods, and you started secretly living in my basement. I had to lie to my parents and Nancy to protect you, just like you made me promise to do.” 

“But the bad men were after me then, that’s different.” 

“It’s not so different. You only lied to Jennifer to protect Will and Robert from the bad people who would hurt them if they found out their secret. The fewer people that know, the safer it is for them.” 

“It still feels wrong, you know? Maybe I could’ve told her before and it would’ve been fine, but it’s too late for that now. Will’s gonna tell her the truth after whatever happens between him and Robert upstairs, and then she’s gonna hate me. I just know it.” 

“Maybe she’ll be mad at first, but I think she’ll understand why you kept the truth from her. If I know Will, I know he’ll tell her not to blame you. And if she still doesn’t understand after that, then she’s probably not worth being friends with anyway. Look at it this way, it also wouldn’t have made you look like a very good friend to spill Will’s secret without his permission. Do you know the other rule of friends?” 

El shook her head. 

“They always keep each others’ secrets. No matter what.” Mike inhaled sharply. “Look, I know being here’s making you uncomfortable, but we can’t just go home and leave Will behind. We came with him, and we have to leave with him too. If you’d like, we can sit out here for a while. It’s a lot quieter and far enough away from Jennifer.” 

El nodded.

Mike kissed her cheek. “Don’t worry. Everything’s gonna work out. You’ll see.”

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Will had returned to his seat on the edge of the bathtub, his head drooped down as he stared at the floor, still avoiding eye contact with me. I kept my distance, sitting on the opposite side of the room my back against the bathroom door, my legs sprawled out in front of me. There was a long uncomfortable silence between Will and me as we both sat in our respective spots, neither of us really knowing what to say. I sucked my teeth as I searched for words, any words to make this less awkward. _He mentioned something about seeing me out on the street earlier. Maybe I could start with that?_ I came up with a question inquiring about that and repeated it in my head over and over again, wondering whether he’d even be receptive to talking about it or just try to ignore me. All the while I was completely unable to keep the butterflies in my stomach at bay, so I tried my best to ignore them. After a couple minutes or so of pondering and nervousness, I decided to break the silence, hoping I wouldn’t be met with total hostility. “You said you saw me out on the street earlier?” 

He looked over at me and nodded. “Yeah, around 6:55 or so. I take it you guys were heading to the party.” 

“Yeah.”

“I noticed none of you were carrying candy bags.”

“We didn’t go.” 

“How come?” 

I shrugged. “I don’t know, I guess we were all fine to try something different this year, and Dustin wanted to get here early to talk to Jennifer before she got too busy. Not that that really mattered in the end. He didn’t end up talking to her until later on, and it seemed like not much really came of it.” 

“Oh, that’s too bad,” Will sympathized. He pondered for a moment what to say next. “Do you miss it? Trick-or-treating?” 

“Yeah, kind of. This party’s a little…” 

“Chaotic?” Will simpered. 

I smiled faintly back at him. “It’s had its moments.” 

“It was definitely a lot quieter this year, just the three of us,” he acknowledged, scratching his head. 

“Can’t say the same for our group. Jack’s a drunk mess after Max’s heart and Dustin’s… Dustin.” 

“Wait, Jack likes Max?” 

I nodded. “Yeah, but of course he won’t say anything to her.” 

Will chuckled. “Huh, now where have I heard that before?” 

“I don’t know. Doesn’t ring a bell for me,” I joked. We stared at each other for a moment before both of us suddenly burst out laughing. I instantly felt an undeniable sense of catharsis, sharing a laugh with him again after having gone so long without doing so. It was like returning to a trusty old bike after riding a newer less familiar one for a while. It felt so natural, so comfortable, so easy.

______________________________________________________________________________

From the other side of the door, Max heard us laughing and smiled to herself. _This was exactly what they needed,_ she thought.Figuring by this point we were probably not going to try to escape the bathroom and also wanting to give us some privacy, she slowly backed away from the door, being careful not to make too much noise. 

She crept down the hallway and headed down the stairs. As she made her descent, she scanned the living room for any sign of El and Mike from her higher vantage point. They were nowhere to be seen. Max frowned. _That’s strange. Figured they’d be desperate to know how things were going upstairs._ She snaked her way through the crowd toward the kitchen to grab a cup of water when out of nowhere Dustin came franticly running, roughly brushing past some people to get to her. 

“Finally! I’ve been looking all over for you! You gotta come quick! Jack’s out back puking his guts out all over Jennifer’s lawn, and you know how I get around vomit.” 

“Jesus, I leave you two alone for five minutes…” Max groaned. She peeked behind Dustin. “Have you seen Mike and El recently?”

Dustin shook his head. “If they’re still here, I haven’t seen them.” 

The redhead sighed. “All right. Lead the way, merman.”

______________________________________________________________________________ 

As we both fell quiet again, my euphoria began to fade away. _No, this is wrong. I don’t deserve a moment this nice with him._ _Not after the way I treated him. I don’t care what Mike thinks. Will must hate me. He has to. How could he not? He’s probably only trying to be polite now._ Feeling queasy, I bit my lip. I really wanted out of this bathroom now. 

“You’re not gonna throw up on me, are you?” Will asked me out of the blue. “Because if you are, there’s a toilet right there.” He pointed at it. 

 _Damn it. Am I that transparent?_ I looked at him funny. “Why would I throw up?” 

“Your stomach and uncomfortable situations don’t really mix last I recall,” he said flatly. 

“You saying I’m uncomfortable?” 

“Well, aren’t you? You’re stuck in a bathroom with the one person you said you don’t want anything to do with.” 

 _There_ it was — the elephant in the room. I sighed. “I’m not going to throw up. And it’s not true, you know… what I said that night.” 

“Oh, really? ‘Cause you sounded pretty convincing to me.”

“People say stupid things they don’t mean when they’re angry.” 

He scoffed. “So what, I’m supposed to just take your word for it despite you acting for a whole month like I don’t exist?”

“You did the same to me! Besides, I figured you’d be better off without me — without this mess of a relationship. At least that way, you’d be free to stay safe and sound in the closet, just like you’ve always wanted.” 

Will glowered at me. “You’re an idiot if you think _that’s_ what I want.” 

The general queasiness that had plagued me since Will and I first came face to face this evening had steadily gotten worse the longer I was stuck in here with him. I had tried my best to ignore it before, but now that we were having _that_ conversation, it had officially boiled over into full-blown nausea, and I found myself unable to avoid succumbing to it any longer. 

“I… I’m gonna be sick,” I rushed over to the toilet, flung open the cover and the seat and began to heave. My body trembled as I coughed and gagged. 

Behind me, Will got up from the edge of the bathtub and crawled over toward me. He put his hand on my back. “Get everything out. It’s gonna be okay, Robert.” 

I was entirely nonplussed by his tenderness but unable to comment. I continued to vomit, retching and coughing. After about another forty-five seconds or so, my stomach was empty. I spit whatever excess saliva I could out of my mouth. “I think I’m good now,” I mumbled weakly. 

Taking his hand off my back, Will pulled some toilet paper off the roll along the wall, folded it up and handed it to me. I blew my nose and tossed the paper in the toilet. He gave me some more, which I used it to wipe away the remnants around the outer edges of the bowl. I discarded the rest of the paper in the toilet and pushed down the flush handle. I continued to lean over the toilet bowl just in case and watched as my vomit got flushed away and fresh water started to fill up the bowl again. 

“Feel any better?” 

I kept my head down, not wanting to look at him. “Why are you helping me?" 

“Why wouldn’t I help you?” Will replied, seemingly offended that I would ask such a question despite the obvious tension between us. 

I closed the lid on the toilet bowl,stood up, and went over to the sink to wash my face. As I began to pull my yellow rubber gloves off and set them down on the counter, I looked down at him through the reflection in the mirror. “Because you hate me. Just admit it already.” I turned on the faucet, the warm glow of the sconce on the wall hitting my face.  

Will raised his voice over the running sink water. “I don’t hate you, Robert! God, you can be so dense sometimes!” He sighed, his tone becoming somewhat softer now. “I mean sure, you hurt me, a lot, I might add, but I _never_ stopped caring about you, not for one second.” 

I wasn’t sure how much I believed him, or if I even wanted to believe him. This would all be so much easier if he could just hate me. I could finally move on, stop missing him and thinking about him constantly. 

I dried my hands and face with one of Jennifer’s flamingo pink hand towels hanging on the towel rack and plopped down cross-legged on the floor with my back against the sink cabinet. 

Will scooted back against the bathtub. He stared down at the floor as he started to speak. “You have no idea how badly I wanted to reach out to you. I came so close to doing it too— like a whole bunch of times. There were these days during biology I’d find myself losing focus and starting to daydream about risking detention just to pass a note to you. The daydreams always played out the same. I’d pass you a note telling you to turn around, and you’d be totally confused because you weren’t sure who wrote it, but you’d do it anyway and see me sitting in the back row smiling at you sheepishly. You’d inevitably smile back, but only briefly since you’d remember you were also risking getting in trouble for not paying attention. Some days we’d pass by each other in the school hallway, neither of us acknowledging the other, and I’d imagine myself calling out your name just to see if you’d respond. For some reason, you always would. It was never anything more than a friendly wave, but I’d be satisfied anyway. Just a casual acknowledgement was all I ever could realistically hope for. And then there were these nights that I’d be lying in bed, and I’d end up impulsively grabbing my Supercom off my nightstand and dialing it to our channel — start pretending like I was talking to you, telling you all about my day, my finger hovering right over the talk button. It was always so tempting to just press it, to let you hear me rant on and on — see if by some miracle you were actually listening to our channel. Stupid, I know.” 

Hearing him now, I knew he really had been earnest in his assertion that he still cared about me. His strong desire to reconnect so similarly reflected my own experience this past month. But just like in my case, there was obviously something holding him back, since he never did actually reach out. “If you really wanted to talk to me that badly, then why didn’t you?” I questioned him. 

“You know why!” Will glared at me angrily. 

“I told you before…” 

“No, don’t give me that crap about what you said not being true! I know you meant it.” He stared at me wistfully. “I’ll never forget that look on your face. It wasn’t rage. No, it was heartbreak — hopelessness. I’d never been more devastated in my entire life — seeing you completely give up on us like that despite everything we’d been through, knowing full well it was because I had failed you. Because I’d taken what we had and completely spoiled it.” 

“Don’t say that!” I admonished him. 

“It’s true, though.” 

“No, I failed _you,_ Will. I broke us apart,” I said, trembling, my voice weak. “You didn’t deserve to be pushed away.” 

“You don’t get to do that, Robert! You don’t get to sit there and pretend like nothing I said or did mattered to you, when we both know damn well it did! Just because you decided I hated you and moved on doesn’t mean that I did.” 

“What are you talking about? I never moved on.” 

“What about Jack? Isn’t he like your best friend now?”

“What? No! He doesn’t even know the first thing about me.” 

Bemused, Will scrunched his face. “Wait, so you haven’t told him?” 

I shook my head, too embarrassed to say outright that I hadn’t told Jack I was gay when I had pestered Will for so long about doing the same with Jennifer. 

“Not so easy, is it?” 

I shook my head again.

Will sighed. “Look, everything you said was right, Robert. I was a coward. I gave you every reason not to trust me. I disregarded your feelings and pretended like we weren’t together just because it was easier to act like we were only friends. I made promises I didn’t keep, and worst of all I took our relationship and our friendship for granted. So yes, I did deserve it — your words, your cold shoulder, all of it.” 

“I mean, sure, watching her kiss you hurt, but I never even stopped once to think about how uncomfortable you must have felt. And yeah, you telling me our relationship was some bullshit fantasy sucked even more, but none of that was any excuse for how I treated you. I was selfish, Will. I should never have tried to pressure you into coming out when you weren’t comfortable with it.” I took a breath. “Not one day, not a single minute, has gone by since that Saturday night that I don’t regret all the horrible things I said to you — that I don’t regret pushing you away. So don’t you dare sit there and tell me that you deserved any of it, because you don’t, Will. You deserve so much better than that. Better than me.” 

Will was speechless, his eyes welling up as he gazed at me, totally confounded. 

“I miss you, Will. I miss us. I’m so sorry… for everything. At this point, I don’t even care if you never want to date me again, I just want my best friend back… more than anything in the entire world,” I pleaded, my voice breaking. “Please.” 

“Screw that,” he muttered. 

“What?” I gasped.

“I want my boyfriend back.” Tears were streaming down Will's cheeks. 

Overcome with happiness and relief, I leapt from my spot by the under-sink cabinet and pounced on him, hugging him tight.

He hugged me back. “I’ve missed you too, Robert. And, I’m sorry for everything too.” 

We separated. “I can’t believe we wasted a whole month over this crap.” 

Will cracked a smile. “We’re both stubborn idiots.” 

“I’ve just got one question.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Why are we always getting together in bathrooms?”

He laughed. “I don’t know. They’re private, I guess, kinda like our relationship. Speaking of which, from now on, I promise I’ll never pretend like we’re not together when it’s just us or the party around.” 

“And I promise to respect your desire to keep our relationship under wraps when we’re in public.” 

We both stood up as we prepared to let Max know we were back together so we could leave the bathroom. 

“You know, I’ve got a question too,” Will confessed. “How the hell did we somehow coordinate our costumes so perfectly without even discussing our plans for them?” 

I shrugged. “Who knows?” 

“I mean, seriously, what are the chances? You could have just as easily been Marty too. Or we could have both been Doc. Or even…”Will lost his train of thought as he noticed the dopey smile on my face as I stood there studying his features instead of paying attention to what he was saying. “What?”

“Your hair… it got longer.” Will had let his hair grow back to his old bowl cut style again, which worked a treat for his costume. 

“And yours got whiter,” he joked, fluffing my Doc Brown wig. 

“Hey, careful with that! You know how much time it took to style this thing?” 

“Always a diva, aren’t you?” Will teased. 

I stuck my tongue out at him. 

“You ready to get back to the party?” 

“Eh, not really, but we can’t be in here all night.” 

He nodded in agreement. 

“Hey, Max!” I called out. “You can open the door now! We’re good!” 

There was no response on the other side of the door. 

“That’s weird,” I frowned. “Maybe she can’t hear me.” I stepped toward the bathroom door and opened it slowly… no resistance. “Max?” We poked our heads out the door, our eyes quickly widening with fear as we saw someone waiting on the other side who was very much not Max, a scrawny black-haired boy dressed as Sonny Crockett from _Miami Vice_ and donning tortoise colored Wayfarer sunglasses. It was none other than Todd’s friend Ed, although to Will and I, he was a complete stranger.

“You done yet? There’s a long line for the bathroom downstairs, and I really need to…” he stopped himself mid speech. “What the hell?! There’s _two_ of you in there?!” he exclaimed, giving us a funny look. 

“We can explain!” Will blurted out, pushing the door open more, knowing full well that doing the opposite would have looked much more suspicious. “You see my friend… he got sick and threw up, and… I was in here helping take care of him.”  

I concurred with a nod. 

Ed pulled off his sunglasses and folded his arms, tapping his sunglasses against his left upper arm as he scrutinized the two of us. “Huh, I feel like I know you guys from somewhere,” he said, slurring his words a bit. 

“We’re Doc and Marty. You know, from _Back to the Future_ ,” I chuckled nervously.

His hands now stuffed in the pockets of his red puffy vest, Will nodded in agreement, both of us hoping that was the only reason he recognized us.

Ed snapped his fingers as a light bulb went on in his head. “Waaaiiiit a minute!Now I remember! You’re those fairies we saw at the pool giving each other massages,” Ed grinned devilishly.

My stomach sank as I realized he must have been one of Todd’s friends _._ I could feel itches flaring up in random spots all over my back and arms. I scratched myself, writhing in discomfort. 

Will shook his head. “You must be mixing us up with some other people.” I was amazed he was somehow managing to keep his cool. I was sure internally he must have been freaking out just as much as I was. 

“Nah, I’m _pretty_ sure it was you guys. Finally graduated from back rubs to blow jobs, eh?”Ed taunted us. 

“Ew! Gross! I already told you I was just helping out my friend who got sick!” Will denied Ed’s false claim concerning what we were doing in here.

Ed snorted. “Yeah, I bet you were _helping_ him out in there. Wait till Todd hears about this! You fairies are so dead!” Before either of us could reply, he ran off down the hall back toward the stairs, seemingly forgetting how badly he needed to use the restroom.

“Wait! Stop! This is all just a big misunderstanding!” Will shouted after him desperately. 

It was no use. Ed was gone, almost certainly running off to tell the newly crowned keg king lies about what we were doing up here.

______________________________________________________________________________ 

Todd was hanging around near the kitchen talking to Stacey, who had dressed up as a black cat. She wore a black body suit with an attached tail and a black cat ear headband over her long teased up light brown hair. To complete the look, she had painted whiskers on her face. 

Despite all their supposed drama, Stacey couldn’t help but remain infatuated with the JV quarterback. Todd exhibited a certain confidence not a lot of boys she knew in her year possessed. 

Lucas and Jamie lingered nearby, Jamie chatting with some of their teammates, while Lucas remained silent, not really paying attention to their conversation. His eyes were fixed squarely on the drink cooler as he debated grabbing another beer. Maybe then he’d have more fun. It seemed to work for Todd and Jamie. Before Lucas could decide, Ed came running toward Todd, interrupting his conversation with Stacey much to his annoyance. 

“Hey Todd!” Ed yelled. 

Todd frowned. “The hell you want? Can’t you see I’m busy?” 

“Trust me, you’re gonna wanna hear this.” 

Todd raised an eyebrow. He turned to Stacey, smiling politely. “Excuse me for a moment.” 

She nodded and stepped away. 

Todd turned back toward Ed, his smile fading as he leaned in. “This better be good, Ed.” 

“So there I am waiting in line for what felt like for-EVER for the bathroom because the line’s super long, and suddenly I get the bright idea to try the one upstairs. I knew they didn’t want anyone goin’ upstairs, so I figured there’d be no wait.

Todd rolled his eyes. “Get to the point, Ed.” 

“I’m getting there. I’m getting there. So I go upstairs and it looks like someone got the same idea because I see the light’s on and the door’s closed. Not too long after I get there, I hear a voice call out, ‘Hey, Max! You can open the door now. We’re good.’”

Lucas perked up as he heard his ex-girlfriend’s name, his attention now fully on Ed’s story, though he made sure not to stare directly at the pair and attract their attention. 

Ed continued on: “So I’m standing out there wondering what the hell this guy’s talking about. Then the door opens and get this, it’s _two_ guys in there. One of them dressed as Doc Brown and the other as Marty McFly… you know from that _Back to the Future_ movie. So while one of them starts giving me some excuse about helping out his friend who got sick, I get a closer look at their faces, and here’s the kicker. Turns out it’s those same fairies we saw rubbing each other’s backs with sunscreen at the community pool last summer!” 

Lucas gasped, covering his mouth as he realized Ed was talking about Will and me. 

“It can’t just be a coincidence that they were in there together after what we saw at the pool, right? ” 

“No, I don’t think it is,” Todd agreed. “One of them is that Zombie Boy Will Byers. I saw his missing poster a couple of years ago. Had a feeling even back then thewhole town was out looking for a fairy.” 

Hearing Todd talk about Will in such a callous manner made Lucas’s blood boil. 

He continued on: “And the Max you said one of them called out for: that’s gotta be Lucas’s ex.”

“How do you know?”

“Those fairies were hanging with her at the bowling alley the night she dumped him.”

“Wanna know what I think? I think they were blowing each other in there,” Ed surmised, his face contorting in disgust. “And that bitch was keeping guard, but ditched them ‘cause she got bored.”

Lucas’s hand balled into a fist, the dark-skinned boy ready to march over to Ed and punch him in the face for calling Max a bitch as well as for making up what he was sure were lies about our activities in the bathroom upstairs. He thought better of it, though, not wanting to start a fight, not with Todd around. Lucas had never liked the obnoxious black-haired sophomore, but he had trained himself to tolerate him because he always hung around Todd’s group. One of the first things Lucas had picked up after joining Todd’s group of friends was that Ed was one of those eager-to-please types, always doing whatever Todd told him to do and never questioning him. He was as spineless as they come.

“Sounds about right. They still up there now?” Todd checked. 

Ed nodded. “Yeah, probably picking back up where they left off.” 

Todd snorted. “What do you say we roll out the welcome wagon for them when they come down?”

Lucas was shaking with rage. That exchange had all but confirmed Todd had lied to him about the “pool incident.” He clearly never felt any sympathy for either of us. In fact, he was almost certainly the ring leader. Lucas was sure of it now. Unable to endure being around Todd any longer, he aggressively squeezed his way past his teammates and other partygoers in the vicinity, trying to make his way toward the front door.  

Todd cocked his head as he noticed Lucas taking off. “Lucas! Where you going? The party’s just getting started!” he called out to his younger friend, wholly unaware that Lucas had overheard everything.

Ignoring him, Lucas exited the house, stopping for a moment on the front porch. He buried his face in his sleeve and let out a muffled scream. Max had been right all along. Todd was exactly like Billy, but worse because at least Billy didn’t try to pretend to be someone he wasn’t. As far as Lucas was concerned, his friendship with Todd was officially over. He found himself now totally despising his older friend, while at the same time also recognizing that Todd’s betrayal was nothing compared to his own betrayal of the party, of his true friends. All this time Lucas had tried to protect Will and me from the judgment and danger of people like Todd, even picking a fight with Mike over it that costed him their friendship and his place in the party, and here he had been fraternizing with exactly that kind of person — with the enemy — for months. He had even considered the guy his best friend. Lucas felt like absolute garbage now as he stood alone on the porch, the late autumn chill hitting his face. 

Back inside the house, Ed was tapping his foot. “I still gotta pee.” 

Todd frowned. “The hell you looking at me for? Go in a bush or something if you’re that desperate.” 

Ed ran off to the backyard to relieve himself, the line for the bathroom still longer than he wanted to wait.

______________________________________________________________________________

I could hear the loud thuds of Todd’s friend descending down the stairs as I stood frozen in the doorway staring out into the hall, a mixture of confusion and panic running through my mind. Will quickly pulled me back inside the bathroom and shut the door. 

“Where the hell did Max go?” I wondered. 

Will started pacing back and forth across the room. “ _That’s_ what you’re worried about right now? That guy’s about to tell Todd he saw us in here together, and we have no way to prove we weren’t doing anything salacious. Plus, we don’t know if or how much he might have overheard. We were lucky Todd left us alone before, but now we’re never gonna hear the end of it from him and his goons.” 

“The guy was drunk. You really think Todd’s actually gonna believe him?”

“He might. It’s really not much of a stretch to put two and two together between this and what they saw us doing at the pool.”

I grabbed the door knob and started to turn it. 

“Where are you going?” Will questioned me.

“To warn El. She can use her powers on the guy — scare him off. He’ll stay quiet then.”

“You know she can’t…” 

“…use her powers except for life or death situations. Yeah, I know, but she would do it for us. I know she would,” I argued. 

“By the time you warn her, the damage will already be done. Why do you think he ran off so fast?”

“To pee somewhere else?” I hoped. 

Will let out a sigh. “Our secret’s out, Robert. We have to accept that and figure out how to proceed from here.” 

I was desperate to cling onto any hope that Will might be wrong, that that guy would just forget his drunken encounter with us, but I knew deep down he was right. He wasn’t all that drunk. He recognized us plain and simple, even seeming to take devilish delight in being the one to divulge our bathroom rendezvous to Todd. 

Letting go of the door knob, I pressed my back against the door and sunk to the floor, sitting with my knees up and my arms folded on top of them. I buried my head in my lap in frustration. Nothing would ever be the same after tonight. My whole world was collapsing around me again right as I was starting to feel like it had finally been pieced back together. And unlike the last time I felt that way, this time there was nothing either of us could do to undo it.  

Taking notice of my fetal position on the floor, Will stopped pacing and stared at me curiously. “I guess somehow I thought you’d be relieved. Isn’t this what you wanted all along? Everyone to know about us?” 

I kept my head in my lap. “I didn’t _want_ people to know. I just wanted us to not care if they did.” 

“But you do care, don’t you?”

I didn’t reply, my silence answering for me.

Will sat down next to me in the narrow space of the doorway, his body pressing up against mine.

“What? No, ‘I told you so?’” I said bitterly.

“You know I wouldn’t say that.”

I lifted my head up, finally making eye contact with him. “I kept thinking… maybe if I could convince you it didn’t matter if everyone knew, I’d feel the same way too.” My voice started to falter now. “I’ve tried so hard to be strong for you, Will. I always have.”

“You don’t have to always put on a brave face for me, Robert. It’s okay to be scared sometimes.”

I burst into tears, hating myself for it all the while. I never wanted him to see me like this: so helpless and terrified. 

He hugged me tight as I sobbed in his arms. 

“The truth is… as much as I wanted to believe it, I’ve never been brave like you.” 

“Robert, come on. You’re like one of the bravest people I know.” 

“No, I’m really not.” 

“You are. Trust me.” 

“I’ve always needed you in my corner to feel like I didn’t need to be afraid of anything, but _you_ … you’ve always had that courage, all on your own.” 

“Everyone feels more scared when they’re alone. You think I wasn’t terrified when I was alone in the Upside Down? When the shadow monster was taking over my mind and no one could even begin to understand what was happening to me? Being brave isn’t about being fearless. It’s about facing your fears, no matter how much they frighten you.”

“But Mike said the catatonic spell from our D&D campaign is really just a metaphor for your biggest fear — whatever’s most holding you back. And that the only way to break it is show no fear.”

“Screw that! He doesn’t know what he’s talking about.” He took a breath. “Besides everyone knows you should always exercise a healthy dose of caution before performing any action in D&D. Fearlessness leads to recklessness, and that’s how you get killed. They don’t call me Will the Wise for nothing,” he said, his lips curling into a smile.

“I can’t do it, Will. I can’t go down there,” I sniffled. "I wish… I wish we could just crawl out this bathroom window right now, run away from Hawkins together, and never look back.”

Will frowned and shut his eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath before opening them again. “Can I tell you a story?” 

I shrugged. 

“It was almost exactly a year ago now. Bob was driving me to school the morning after Halloween. He knew something was keeping me up at night because he could hear me rustling about from the other room, but of course he assumed it was just some regular old nightmare. So he starts telling me about a nightmare he used to have as a kid about some clown named Mr. Baldo that he met at the county fair.” 

I raised an eyebrow. “Mr… Baldo?” 

Will smiled a bit. “Yeah, pretty dumb I know. Anyway, this clown would come to him in his dreams every night and wouldn’t leave him alone no matter how many times he ran away. This went on for months. Finally one night Bob went to sleep, and the clown appeared to him just like he always did. But this time, Bob stood his ground, looked him right in the eye and told him to go away. And just like that, the clown disappeared and never appeared in any of his dreams again. ‘Easy peasy,’ he said. I figured then if it really that simple to make the shadow monster leave me alone, if it really was just some nightmare or hallucination after all, I’d give it a shot. Later that day while we were all searching around school for Dart, the shadow monster appeared in the hallway and chased me all the way outside. But this time, instead of looking for somewhere to hide, I stopped running. I stood out in the open field, turned around to face the monster and screamed, “Go away! GO AWAY!” and, well, you know what happened afterward. Once it got exorcised out of me and I was back to myself again, I quickly decided his advice was foolish, that I was better off trying to ignore my fears — trying to hide from them. At least that way no one would get hurt or killed, like Bob did.” 

He sniffled a bit, wiping a tear away that ran down his cheek. I was all too familiar with the guilt Will felt over Bob’s death. Although I, his mom, and his brother had tried many times in the past to assure him it wasn’t his fault, and he had mostly made his peace with it by this point, I knew there would always be a part of him that felt responsible no matter what. 

Will continued on: “But now… now I know that if it wasn’t for his advice, the shadow monster might be still haunting me to this day, and I’d still be pretending like nothing was wrong, going totally crazy all the while. And worst of all I’d still be hurting myself, hurting everyone I care about,” he said, making eye contact with me on the latter part. “I guess what I’m trying to say is, I’m done hiding.” He stood up, his posture uncharacteristically upright and confident, like a superhero in one of his comic books. “It’s time to face everyone downstairs, together. And yeah, I’m scared as hell, but it’s like you once said, it’s better to rip off the band-aid. We can’t deny the truth and avoid everyone forever.” Will extended his hand out toward me. 

Totally dumbfounded by his sudden change of heart, I found myself gaping at him like a complete idiot, my eyes watery all the while. He couldn’t possibly be serious, could he? 

“Well, don’t leave me hanging.” 

I wiped my eyes and hesitantly grabbed his hand. He pulled me up. Once I was on my feet again, I fully expected Will to let go of my hand, but shockingly he instead began to interlock his fingers with mine. 

“Will…” 

“It’s okay,” he said with a reassuring smile. 

I smiled back weakly. This night was all too surreal. Holding hands with Will in Jennifer Hayes’s bathroom was the last thing I expected to be doing this Halloween night, especially after having had nothing to do with him for over a month and having already resigned myself to the very real possibility that we’d never even speak to one another again, let alone get back together. Between that and all of us breaking our party’s annual tradition of trick-or-treating together, somehow this Halloween had turned out to be even stranger than last year’s, if that was even possible. 

Will opened the bathroom door, flipped off the light switch, and led me out into the hall. Unbeknownst to me, my yellow rubber gloves were still sitting on the sink countertop, destined to become evidence of our time spent in there for Jennifer or herolder sister to later discover.

We slowly walked down the hall, now side by side, our hands still intertwined. He turned to me. “You ready? Once we do this, there’s no going back.”

I nodded. Whatever was waiting for us downstairs, we’d face it together.


End file.
